Otherus
by Angelia Dark
Summary: Karkat and his troll remnants find themselves sent into another universe where Troll society is thriving on a planet called Otherus. Alternate versions of him and his friends do not exist...but troll versions of his human friends do, and they'll need their help to get back to their universe and save it. Trollstuck! John, Dave, Rose, and Jade.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 _What had that explosion been?_

 _Was anyone hurt?_

 _Was anyone DEAD?_

 _Who the FUCK had their knee in his crotch!?_

Karkat sat up, rolling over to his back, hissing at the ache he felt all over. Everything hurt. He was pretty sure even his hair hurt. He forced his eyelids open, glancing around using only his eyes.

Blurred forms were scattered around him. He made a mental count, trying to pair the dark blotchy forms with names. _'One….red dress….that's Kanaya…two, blue pants….Vriska. Dammit, she lived. Three….was that Terezi? Had to be. Then who the fuck had their knee in my fucking crotch?!'_

He forced his neck to turn, seeing a larger form next to him with purple polka-dotted pants, splayed out and actually snoring. _'Oh FUCK ME SIDEWAYS—'_

Another shot of pain stuck up his spine, making him hiss and clench his eyes shut. FUCK. Okay, breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. The pain subsided slowly, and he was able to think again.

Just the five of them. No one else. Where was Strider? Egbert, Lalonde, or Harley? He forced his eyes open again to do another glace over the place.

Nothing. Just them.

He strained his memory, trying find something that would jar his memory of what exactly had happened. He remembered them all being together…then something BIG. Something BAD. He remembered Vriska being struck down. Egbert shouting something, creating a ball of wind to protect them. Harley and Strider revving up something big, a bright light from Lalonde, an even BRIGHTER light…

….and then agonizing darkness.

His eyes snapped open, staring up at a hazy, dim canopy above him. What had happened to them? Where were they? Did they…?

Tears stung in the corners of his eyes, and he didn't even have the strength to wipe them away, or make them stop. _'What is going on?'_

He laid there, staring up at the canopy, feeling himself grow weaker and numb. Death seemed like a decent option by this point, to be honest. He closed his eyes, and just moments before conscious left him, he heard footsteps approaching. His last thought was how grateful he was he'd be unconscious before probably being killed by whoever it was.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Karkat jerked awake, sitting upright, panting and sweating. Oh god, those nightmares…fucking skull monsters, bright lights, pain…just what his already fragile psyche needed right now. He rubbed his head, wincing slightly at the dull ache in his horns. They must've gotten hit when he fell…

….fell WHERE?

Karkat looked around, his jaw dropping.

He was situated in a hive. Not some random place, but a HIVE. Alternian equipment was scattered everywhere among some dubious-looking items that probably wouldn't look too out of place in Subjugglator culture. Oh great, now he made himself nervous again, FUCK…

He looked down, seeing he was in a recuperacoon that was more open-faced like a bathtub, but the slime inside was a purplish-black and smelled almost sour-bitter, like shitty medicine he had been forced to take when he was a young pupa. That only raised MORE questions.

Like, why the fuck was he naked, and who the fuck MADE him that way?!

After looking around for something to cover up with—and finding a stack of towels next to the recuperacoon—Karkat eased himself out of the container and grabbed one of the towels, wiping the slime off, sniffing his arm. Ugh, the smell was clinging to his skin…he was probably going to smell like this for a WEEK…

He was too busy griping to himself over the stench of the slime to notice someone had walked in, until he heard someone clear their throat. He slowly looked up, his face going bright red when he saw a female troll staring at him.

And of COURSE he hadn't put the towel around himself yet. He yelped, jerking back and proceeded to fall ass-first back into the recuperacoon.

The troll only smiled in amusement. "Calm your tits, kiddo, nothing I haven't seen before," she said, walking over to reach in and pull him out almost effortlessly. He sputtered and swiped at her hands, jerking the towel to him, still blushing furiously.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" he snapped, then yelped when she grabbed his head and turned it to the side. "THE FUCK—!?"

"Your horn is cracked," she replied almost carelessly. "Just making sure the crack didn't extend to the skull with that fall you just took." She let go of his head, then turned him by the shoulders to examine him from behind, ignoring his indignant stuttering. "Nothing else was broken. You were one of the lucky ones. Your friend had both horns snapped in two."

Karkat jerked back around, hissing. "Where are they!?" he demanded. The female rolled her eyes, pushing him to sit down.

"Resting up," she said. "Your buddy with the broken horns had to have them grafted back on. He's going to be unpleasant when he wakes up, judging from his blood color." She snorted. "Not to mention his sucky taste in facial adornment." She rummaged around a table of items as Karkat dried off again and examined her over.

She was average height for a troll, who he guessed was around his own age. Her horns were medium-sized and curved to almost make a crescent shape, and her hair was cut to chin-length. She was wearing a long black dress with a purple sash tied around her waist, and he noticed for the first time that her skin appeared to be much darker than average. He also noticed that she didn't have a sign at all.

Something else about her bugged him. The way she acted, and talked…it was almost familiar. He couldn't quite put his finger on it though…

"…so who the fuck ARE you?" he said again. She sighed, walking back over with a jar of questionable goop inside.

"It's rude to ask someone's name without introducing yourself first," she said, scooping some out and putting it onto his cracked horn. He hissed, but resisted swiping at her again.

"…fine," he grumbled. "Karkat Vantas, pleasantries aside, who the FUCK are YOU?"

The troll finished applying the goop onto his horn—huh, truth be told, it WAS feeling a little better—and wiped her hands with another towel.

"My name is Rose. Rose Lalonde."

Rose Lalonde then had to catch him before he pitched face-first into the floor and had to have a broken face added to his list of shit that hurt.

* * *

It took two bottles of some VERY rank concoction to calm Karkat down, and even then he was stammering like an idiot. He couldn't even call her a hoofbeastshitted liar since holy FUCK, on closer look, she DID look like Lalonde, just with black hair and darker skin. Oh, yeah, and FUCKING HORNS BECAUSE SHE WAS A FUCKING TROLL.

She had offered him a pillow to scream in, which only further proved he had fallen down Troll Alice's hopbeast hole, and he proceeded to use it for the purpose for which she had handed it to him for, screaming for a good five minutes before keeping his face buried in it for ten minutes more.

"Any time you're ready to get a grip and put some clothes on, let me know," she finally said, sounding bored and 110% done with his freak-out.

Oh right. He was still naked. He debated keeping the pillow over his face and smothering himself to death to escape the embarrassment. He was saved from making that decision when several articles of clothing were dumped unceremoniously onto his head.

"Dress up, and you can come get something to eat," Rose said, standing and walking out. Karkat picked the clothing off of his head and looked them over. Black pants and a black shirt with a red stripe around the chest. What even…?

Seeing as how there was nothing else to wear, he pulled them on, finding they were slightly big on him, but it was better than walking around naked. After making damn sure his face wasn't red anymore, he slipped out of the room, looking around the hive nervously.

He was pretty sure a graveyard was more cheerful than this place. Black, black, black, skulls, black, black, tentacle monster shit, black, black, more skulls….and he counted six meowbeasts slinking around glowering at him from the corners.

It made his head hurt. It really did. This couldn't be real, she COULDN'T be Lalonde. And yet the universe fucking with his head said yes. Yes, this is real, so shove that up your waste chute, Vantas, and without lubrication because FUCK YOU.

Rose walked out of the nutritionblock, carrying some food. "I have more made up for your friends, when they're awake," she said, setting it down on a table. "Might have to sneak some tranquilizers into your Purple-blooded friend. I don't like the way he was growling and honking in his sleep."

Karkat sat down, poking at the food. "Mmm," he replied noncommittally. "…None of them are….dead, are they?"

"Not that I know of," Rose replied, sitting across from him with some tea. "The Cerulean-blooded girl had some internal damage, but she's recovering nicely." She took a sip from the cup. "So. Do you want to tell me what your freak-out was about, or do I have to hypnotize it out of you?"

Karkat sputtered around the spoonful of food he put into his mouth. "ExCUSE me?" Rose just smiled.

"Kidding," she replied. "Thought I am capable of it. I wouldn't dream of abusing my powers like that." Her smile broadened. "Tempting though it is."

Karkat leaned back, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. "It's….a really long fucking story," he replied, rubbing his eyes. "Longer than I think you'll be able to tolerate."

"You would be surprised what I'm able to tolerate," she replied, smiling in that completely creepy way again. "Try me."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Karkat was long done with his food and went through six cups of tea before he finally brought Rose up to speed about everything, including her counterpart that HE knew of. She listened quietly as he spoke, asking a few questions, looking surprised at a few things, and almost sly at other parts.

He finally finished talking, looking drained but unloaded at the same time, draining off his last cup of tea. "….so yeah," he said, his voice sort of strained from all the talking. "That's…about it."

"Fascinating," Rose said, smiling. "I must say, this concept of a universal game is amazing. I think I would have liked to play it."

"No," Karkat scowled, "you DON'T. It's a bunch of fucking shit that works against you and fucks you over so many times it's unreal." He rubbed his eyes, sighing heavily. "…and now, I don't even know where the fuck we are, or how the fuck we got here."

Rose sat back, finishing her tea. "I cant tell you how, but I CAN tell you where. This is Otherus, our planet. And it seems it's simply another version of your own planet of Alternia." She smiled. "I'm not entirely surprised. I'm aware that many different universes exist outside the realm of imagination. However, I'm pretty sure this game you mentioned does not exist here. Or if it does, we have not discovered it yet."

"Brilliant." Karkat slumped back in his chair. "Just fan-fucking-tastic." He rubbed his temples, getting a headache again. "Without the game, there are no God Tiers, and without God Tiers, there's no way to try to recreate what happened that sent us here." He snarled, grabbing a teacup and hurling it across the room. "FUCKING PERFECT!"

Rose calmly slipped a wand from her sleeve and pointed it at the shattered cup, which glowed with an eerie purple-black light and reformed before she levitated it back over to her. "For one of your blood caste, you certainly do have quite a temper," she commented. "Even for a mutation." Karkat sent her a foul look which she merely waved off. "Uncommon as they are, we do not…what's the word…'cull' anyone for such things. You do not have to worry about that here."

Karkat looked away and out the window, where it was raining. "You'll forgive me for not jumping with joy," he muttered. Rose reached over and flicked his head.

"Wasn't expecting you to." She gathered up the dishes and walked back to the nutritionblock, coming back out after a few moments. "I'm going to check on your friends. You can join me if you want."

Karkat shook his head, resting his arms on the table and burying his face in them, hearing her walk off to another room.

This just couldn't really be happening. He was stuck here in a universe that he didn't know existed…that SHOULDN'T exist! Rose Lalonde was a gogdamn HUMAN! NOT A TROLL.

He agonized over this for who KNEW how long before Rose came back, tapping his shoulder.

"Your friends are awake," she said. "I had to sedate the Purple-blood, but your Jade-blooded friend is nicely recovered."

Karkat jumped up out of the chair and hurried to follow her to another block where everyone else who came with him were in the same kind of open-faced recuperacoons he was in. Kanaya was already out of hers and redressed. She looked up and saw Karkat, hurrying over to hug him tightly.

"You're alright," she said, her voice shaking softly. Karkat heaved a heavy sigh of relief, hugging her back.

"Yeah," he replied gruffly. "…I'm fine." He wasn't going to cry, damn it. He forced himself to get a grip and looked around at everyone else.

Vriska looked only half awake and miserable soaking in a recuperacoon that was even more foul-smelling than anyone else's, her face a little pale. Terezi only looked miserable because of the collective medicinal stink of the room, and Gamzee looked like he had OD'ed on sopor slime, half-hanging out of his recuperacoon, his horns having a slight scarring around them from where they had been put back on.

Rose brought in some clothing for everyone, setting them down on small tables that were next to all the recuperacoons. "I tried to salvage what I could, but most everyone's clothes were beyond help," she said. "But since you're healed, you need to get out of there. Overexposure to this solution can rot your insides."

Vriska yelped, practically diving out, blushing a furious cerulean as she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her chest. "Just who the hell are you?" she demanded. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Seems Miss Kanaya here is the only one with manners," she replied. "Not much I expect from a Cerulean, but I would have at LEAST hoped you would thank me first."

Kanaya's lips twitched with amusement, and Karkat swore he saw her blush a lighter white. Oh. Right. Because of Rose. This wasn't going to be awkward at all. He averted his eyes over to Vriska, who was glowering indignantly.

"Just thank the nice troll, Vriska, she could have left us out there for the beasts to eat," he muttered, walking over to Gamzee and poking him. "…Gamzee, get up. You have to get out of there." Gamzee just grinned, papping Karkat's face.

"Heeeeeey, Karbro," he replied, sounding much more like his old self. "Did you get motherfuckin' taller?" He giggled like he told the most hilarious joke. Okay, loopier than his old self. Karkat could work with this. He sighed, tucking his hands under Gamzee's arms and tugging him out.

"Yes, Gamzee, I got taller. Now quit giggling like a retarded grub and dry off!" He tossed a towel on Gamzee's head, muttering to himself. "Forgot how fucking ANNOYING he was when he's high…"

"Did you ALSO forget how terrifyingly homicidal he is when sober?" Kanaya said, crossing her arms. Karkat scowled.

"Fine, I'll take the high fuckass over the sober fuckass." He sat down, half amused, half second-hand embarrassed at how Gamzee appeared to have trouble remembering what a towel was for. "…for future reference, CAN you keep him this high all the time?"

"It's ill-advised," Rose replied, amused as she watched Gamzee. "Suppress Highblood psychosis like that for too long, and it's even worse when it DOES come out. It's best to just put him on medication and hope for the best."

"…What medication?" Karkat said, frowning. "…you meant to tell me you have medication that helps Highbloods not go absolutely psycho?"

Rose snorted. "You mean you DON'T? It's pretty much a MUST-HAVE. Until evolution does its thing and it breeds out, psychosis is something we deal with ourselves, be it from medication or other means." She walked over to a computer and began typing things up. "I'll see what I can do. I personally don't take the stuff, but I'll get an order in anyway."

Terezi looked between Rose and Karkat several times. "…so, is NOBODY going to point out the fact that that's Rose?" she said, like it was obvious, and everyone was playing a joke on her.

Kanaya blushed whiter. "…don't be ridiculous, Terezi, she's not Rose—"

"Her name's Rose Lalonde, and she likes magic, meowbeasts, and tea with I SWEAR, alcohol mixed in," Karkat said, crossing his arms. "Also, just LOOK at her." Rose gave a sarcastic wave.

"…But….I don't understand…" Kanaya said. "…how…?"

"The humans did SOMETHING that sent us flying into another universe. One where, apparently, a planet like ours exists. And where Rose is a troll. Because WHY FUCKING NOT?" His eye twitched. "Because FUCK OUR LIVES MORE THAN THEY ALREADY ARE!"

Rose arched a brow. "….make that TWO orders, then," she commented, pressing the SEND key. "Anyway, I have food for everyone, if they're hungry.

"Thought you'd never ask," Terezi said, jumping up. "Lead the way, Troll Rose!"

"….this is the biggest load of bullshit ever," Vriska said, rubbing her head, following out. "If I didn't have such a migraine, I would fucking SMITE everyone…"

Karkat sighed, seeing as he was the only one willing to put some clothes on Gamzee, grumbling to himself. "Better hope that medication works, you fuckass," he told the half-dozing troll, having to struggle to put the shirt on over the still-healing horns. "Because I am NOT going to be on grubsitting duty with you!"

Gamzee purred, hugging Karkat's middle. "Nahhh, I'mma be motherfuckin' good, best friend!" he exclaimed. Karkat wrestled Gamzee's arms off him and managed to get some pants on the high asshole before practically dragging him out, almost running into Kanaya, who came back to help.

"You were taking a while," she said, hoisting Gamzee up. Karkat grumbled.

"Fucker wouldn't stop hugging me," he groused back. "So. On a scale of Gamzee to me, how are YOU taking this fuckery?"

Kanaya sighed. "…somewhere in the middle," she replied. "I can see how it's possible, but…the fact that I'm seeing Rose as a troll…" She blushed white again. Karkat arched a brow.

"…you're thinking of Quadrant technicalities, aren't you?" he said. Kanaya swatted at his head.

"Hush, you!" she shot back, fighting back a bright glow, managing to suppress it before they got to the dining room. Terezi was making grabby-hands for everything while Vriska was nursing a cup of coffee with shaking hands.

"Oh, food, motherfuckin' sweet!" Gamzee said, standing straight and making a beeline for the table and sitting down, having a grabby-contest with Terezi over what to take.

"….I swear to gog, I don't know if he does it on purpose or not," Karkat said, his eye twitching. Having already eaten, he just grabbed a cup of coffee and stood to the side as the others went about eating.

Rose was eyeing Terezi and Gamzee dubiously. "…She licks everything, and he barely chews," she said with a grimace. "Horrifying." Karkat snorted into his coffee cup.

"That coming from the troll with skulls everywhere," he replied. She gave him a dramatic roll of the eyes before suddenly frowning and whipping out her wand. "…What?"

"Someone's coming." She poised her wand up for an attack just moments the for the door burst open and someone ran in, only to skid back and slam it shut, panting and pressing their body against it.

It was a male troll, taller than Karkat with short hair and long, almost elegantly-curved horns that reminded Karkat of a mountain bleatbeast, a pair of slightly-askew shades on his face and wearing black pants and a black shirt with a red stripe around the chest. Karkat was now 98% sure where the clothes he was wearing came from.

He opened his mouth to ask what even the shit, but Rose beat him to it.

"DAVE, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO NOW!?"


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Had Karkat taken a sip of his coffee, he was sure he would have spewed it clear across the room. DAVE!? _DAVE!?_ He dropped his coffee cup, not reacting when it splattered on his shoes.

Dave groaned, bracing himself up with his hands on his knees, catching his breath. "I didn't DO anything!" he shot back. "Goddamn Ceruleans decided today was a GREAT day to try to kick my ass! And THEN the fuckers decided to bring their Teal buddies in for a lick!" He groaned again, taking a few deep breaths. "PRETTY sure my hive is gonna be trashed, and I need a place to crash until they're done."

Rose scowled, peeking out the window. "…Sure," she replied, reaching over to a table and picking up what looked like a large black egg with a pin sticking out, biting the pin off, opening the door, and throwing it out before slamming the door shut again. A few moments later, there was a loud explosion.

"THE FUCK—!?" Karkat shrieked, jumping. Dave looked up, frowning.

"…..Who the hell is this fuckass, and why the fuck is he wearing my spare clothes?" he asked Rose, pointing at Karkat. Karkat instinctively went on the defensive.

"Who the fuck are you calling a fuckass, you bulgeleak?!" he shot back, baring his teeth. Dave arched a brow.

"Wow, are you for real, shorty? Power play? I got your bulgeleak RIGHT the fuck here! We're in the SHIT now, bruh!"

Rose stepped between them, a wand now in both hands. "Either ONE of you wants to try a power play?" she hissed. "Because I will bend you both over and make you call me daddy by the time I'm done with you!" She straightened when both males instantly looked cowed. "Good. Dave, Karkat. Karkat, Dave. Now shake hands!"

Dave eyed Karkat down from behind his shades, pulling a face, but holding his hand out anyway. Karkat clenched his teeth and took it, squeezing harder than necessary. Dave returned the squeeze. "Speaking of bulgeleaking, I'll kick your ass if you pail yourself in those pants of mine."

Karkat sputtered, his face going bright red as Dave let his hand go to shove both into his pants pockets.

Rose smacked Dave upside the head. "This is why you get your ass kicked so much, Dave. You're such a dick." She pushed Karkat for the diningblock. "I also have MORE company here, and something tells me you're going to be interested in the story they have to tell."

"Whatever you say," Dave said airily, heading into the diningblock. "As long as you don't kick me out to fend off those fuckass Ceruleans and their Teal sycophants, I'm good…" He paused, spotting Vriska and Terezi sitting at the table, having looked up when he came in talking. He took a glance at the colors of their irises before grimacing. "Wow. SUPER awkward moment right there."

"WOW!" Terezi said, leaning over the table. "DAVE!? Is that YOU!?" She jumped over the table hurrying up to him and licking his cheek.

"WOAH, THE FUCK—!?"

"It IS you!" She hopped in place for a moment, giddy as a schoolgirl. "THIS IS JUST SO PERFECT! First Rose and now DAVE!" She kicked back in a chair, grinning. "Why must everything be so wonderful?"

Dave wiped his cheek off. "…Okay, who the fuck are these guys, how the fuck do they know me, and do I need to keep myself armed because I'm NOT fucking getting my ass killed in my sleep," he told Rose.

"They came from another universe," Rose replied casually, smiling. "They were in a rough shape, so I brought them in to heal them up.

Dave arched a brow, glancing at everyone. "…..another universe, huh? Wouldn't be the weirdest thing you brought into this hive." He grabbed an apple, biting into it. Karkat stared.

"…you just accept it. Just like that," he said incredulously.

"Hey, when you know Rose as long as I have, you see some weird-ass shit go down here. Ever seen someone try to summon an elder god? Nightmares, right there." He paused, slapping Gamzee's hand away from his horns. "Will someone tell Chuckles the Assclown to stop touching me before I kick his bulge up to his throat?"

Kanaya reached over and lowered Gamzee's hand. "I'm just going on a VERY narrow limb here and saying you know two others named Jade and John," she said. Dave's head snapped up.

"…you some kind of psychic?" he said, narrowing his eyes. Right, she couldn't see him narrow his eyes. Irony is SO lost on this crowd. He turned to Rose. "But seriously, I'm not gonna be smothered in my sleep, am I?"

"I'm SURE they're fine, Dave," Rose said patronizingly. "Not like you cant defend yourself." She started to tidy up. "And apparently, they knew different versions of us in their universe. Only, we were aliens."

Dave snorted, finishing off his apple. "What did we have freaky extra appendages and buggy eyes or some shit? Because THAT would be pretty choice."

"Nah," Terezi said, grinning. "You didn't have horns. And your skin was like a daisy. And you didn't have a bulge."

"THE FUCK—!?"

"Ignore her, she's just poking fun," Kanaya said, shoving a sweet roll into Terezi's mouth. "But she's right for the most part. You, Rose, John, and Jade were aliens called humans…which were mammalian instead of insectoid. We actually looked very similar, for the most part. But no, humans don't have horns, and their skin ran a variety from pale, like yours and Rose's was, to lighter shades of brown like John and Jade. And they all had the same blood color."

Dave pushed his shades up his nose. "Sounds like a bunch of freaks," he commented.

"No kidding," Terezi said, swallowing the sweet roll. "The FREAKIEST. Dave was a good kisser, though. I could use a comparison—"

"Come near me and I wont be responsible for what happens to your internal organs," Dave replied, shifting back. "Seriously, I'm still not 100% convinced none of you wont kill me in my sleep."

"What the hell is with you and paranoia that people will kill you in your sleep?" Vriska snorted, sipping her coffee. "Speaking from personal experience or something?"

The stoniness that came over Dave's face and the awkward silence to follow said it all.

"Well. I'm going to go help Rose with the dishes before I decide that I don't care a Cerulean bitch is company, and that this place could use a splash of blue among all the black. Have a great visit, and FUCK YOU." He stalked into the nutritionblock, slamming the door behind him hard enough to make some things on the wall rattle.

Vriska stared after him before scowling at the look Kanaya was giving him. "What? Not like I KNEW or anything!"

"Still. We know nothing about this world, or even about anyone here. It doesn't matter if they share similarities to our friends back in the other universe." She looked quietly into her coffee cup. "I cant even speculate what Jade and John would be like. They were raised differently here."

Karkat scowled, pushing back from the wall and heading into the nutritionblock. "I want to meet Jade and John," he said, cutting right to the chase. "I just…..I HAVE to see them."

Rose nodded, as though knowing what he wasn't conveying. "Of course," she said, putting some things away. "Jade is closest. We can leave soon, if you want."

"Count me out," Dave said, his arms crossed. "I'm not going ANYWHERE with a fucking Cerulean, or even a Teal."

"The hell is wrong with Terezi?" Karkat said, scowling. "Vriska I can understand, but Terezi's just weird. If it's the licking thing, it's because she's blind, and she can taste and smell colors. It's how she gets to know you."

"It's fucking gross! The hell kind of civilized person DOES something like that?"

"Oh, both of you cut it out!" Rose said sharply. "Dave, you're coming with us. I'm pretty sure Clovis and his gang will have no qualms about trying to break in when I'm not here, and they're cluckfiendshit about attacking you when you're with me. Safety in numbers and all that." Dave still looked mutinous. "I'm sure Jade will let you raid her orchard this time. Saves you from having to go to the market for your juice."

"…god damn you, Lalonde."

"Good! I'll go get dressed, then." She hurried out and upstairs, leaving him alone with Karkat.

"….so did my other self hate you as much as I do?" Dave finally said. Karkat glowered.

"No," he bit out, clenching his teeth. "You…couldn't even hold a candle to what WE had."

"…yeah, just don't come to me for Spades sex, and we'll be fine," Dave replied, heading out and leaving Karkat sputtering indignantly.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It took a bit of time for Rose to change, but then she came down with a few articles of clothing with different colors on them, handing them out to corresponding castes. "The hell is this?" Vriska said, holding up a cerulean skirt. "Because I don't do skirts."

"Just put it on," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Over your pants, for all I care, but trust me, you'll need it." She handed Terezi a teal jacket, Kanaya a jade sash, and put a purple scarf around Gamzee's neck. "Try not to choke on it," she said dryly, watching Gamzee wind it around his head as well.

"Can we GO now?" Dave said, scowling, then yelped when Rose smacked him upside the head.

"God, this is why I never take you shopping," she replied. "And yes, let's go." She headed out, waiting for everyone to leave the hive before shutting and locking the door behind her.

Karkat looked around at the outside, which was somehow creepier than the inside. He even swore there were darker clouds above just her property. He followed her down a long path that came out to a street, and he couldn't help but stare.

It was almost unheard of for trolls to be out and about like this, especially in such numbers. He could even see adults walking around, some even with young children. Something that stuck was that nobody was wearing signs, but instead articles of clothing with blood color on them. "…what in the absolute FUCK…"

Rose glanced at him. "Pretty different from what you told me, hm?" she said, smiling a little. "We don't have signs here, but it's required to wear something with your blood color on it. It's also illegal to falsify your color. If you just wore plain black or grey or white out, you'd have to prove your blood color by having it drawn from your body." She walked past a group of older teenagers that appeared to be indulging in a fad of having their horns dyed their blood color.

"…So there are adults that stay here as well," Kanaya observed, looking off at one adult that was carrying a small child just out of grubhood. Rose nodded.

"The ones that are here are normally in civil servant jobs, such as law enforcement, healing, and grub-rearing," she said.

"You mean…some adults raise grubs?" Terezi said, her head swiveling around to catch smell of everything.

"Yes. It's for either the ones who aren't picked by a lusus, or for the privileged Highbloods." Her cheeks tinged a slight purple. "…myself included. But I've been on my own for over a sweep now."

Kanaya smiled as she looked around. "…it's almost utopian," she commented. Dave snorted loudly.

"Hardly," he grumbled, his hands in his pockets. "A bunch of shitty people still think that blood counts for everything. Mostly the Blue Hues. And ESPECIALLY the Blues who refuse to take their psychosis meds." He kicked a rock on the ground. "Since they're Highbloods, they think they can do whatever the fuck they want to whoever the fuck they want, especially since most of the law enforcers are Blues too."

"The only ones who can really reel them in are the Purples," Rose continued. "But there aren't that many Purples who want to. They benefit from caste privilege as much as, if not more than, the Blues. And Grimdarks like myself mostly stay out of affairs that have nothing to do with their work."

"What, so that makes you a fuckin' saint?" Karkat replied, looking around with slight distaste, though he WAS interested to see that in this world, apparently Lime bloods were never exterminated.

"Hardly. I just happened to make friends before I became a Grimdark." She playfully ruffled Dave's hair. "Someone had to keep his ass from getting kicked."

"Oh, fuck off," Dave grumbled, smacking her hand away. "You're just jealous a Rust got bigger horns than a Purple."

"I'm not one for horn envy, Dave, you know that."

Karkat tuned out the banter, continuing to look around without all the commentary. This place was certainly more social than Alternia, with definitely better relations between castes, but it all seemed so odd. Almost nothing here was familiar enough to be comfortable…

He yelped when he bumped into someone in his distraction and was promptly shoved. "Watch where the fuck you're going, gutterblood!" an Indigo blood snapped. Oh, wait. Nevermind, there it was. He clenched his fists, preparing for a bloody scrap if need be, but was stopped by Gamzee steeping in front of him.

"Don't motherfuckin' appreciate you callin' my bro a gutterblood," he said, a hint of bite coming back into his voice through the high haze. Karkat glanced down, and absently wondered where Gamzee had that club in his hand hidden. "Wanna back the motherfuck off before I motherfuckin' MAKE YOU?"

The Indigo paled and turned on heel, hurrying off. Rose looked faintly amused.

"Nice. Usually it's me they do that for," she said, smiling and heading on. Gamzee slung his arm around Karkat's shoulders, walking on like nothing had happened. Like the past couple of years never happened. Like they were 'best friends' again.

Karkat was tossed ass-over-tit-first back into uncomfortable, but since that club was still in Gamzee's free hand, he wasn't about to do anything that would tempt the juggalo to use it.

"Was your history similar to ours?" Kanaya was asking Rose as they walked, only briefly distracted by a stall selling rather fashionable accessories. Rose smiled.

"…I suppose so," she replied. "If your history is long and bloody, and caste meant everything." She sighed, the group listening in, interested.

"All this isn't long-standing…changes like this only happened fifty-odd sweeps ago, and we're still working on it. Everyone was divided by caste, and it stayed that way, with only the odd Quadrants being filled with inter-caste relationships from time to time.

"It remained this way up until long ago, when there was a long draught and Lowbloods began dying off from starvation and disease and exhaustion from being overworked. That's when protests and riots started. The Lowbloods refused to work until they were adequately paid for it, and received proper treatment.

"For the most part, the protests were peaceful, and lead by an Olive blood who was known for adventure and travel to other planets. He would beg an audience with the Highbloods and tell them about the worlds he saw, with many factions working together in harmony. Most called him a fool and a dreamer, but he gave the working classes hope, and it didn't disappoint.

"On the other hand, there were the rioters. They felt they could get the respect they deserved by force. They chose their leader, a mutant on the Bronze spectrum with blood the color of the sky at sunrise. He chose that motif for his rioting party, and he was well-known for capturing abusive Highbloods and tying them in a clearing for the sun to burn them. 'Ironic euphemism', I believe is what he was trying to convey."

She paused, seeing her guests were staring, captivated. She smiled and went on, heading into a wooded area.

"You can imagine the clash the two had. Peaceful protests versus violent riots. The Highbloods thought the two factions would destroy themselves with the opposition. But the opposite happened. The two leaders became matesprits, and began forming a powerful union. The protests became more aggressive, and the riots less violent."

Rose paused again, frowning almost sadly. "…and then one day, the Blue Hue party began a slaughter of the union. Males, females, grubs, lusii…no one was spared from their terror. It all happened in one night, with targeted precision, leaving only a fraction of the survivors to witness the aftermath. It was to be a 'reminder' of where their places were.

"It shook up the Olive leader so badly, he went insane from grief. It tore his mutant matesprit to pieces, and the once-powerful leader of the rioting faction prostrated himself to the leaders of Otherus and made one last call of reform before putting a sword through himself and his matesprit that very day, unable to cope with losing so many of his people and his matesprit all at once.

"To this day, many consider it a miraculous sacrifice because right after they both died, the draught ended. To everyone's surprise, the two highest Land-Dwelling seats of power, an Indigo and a Purple who normally hated each other, began the reform. The Purple put in motion to make it illegal to blame Highblood psychosis for travesties such as the one that befell that bloody night, and the Indigo stated that Lowbloods were to be properly paid and taken care of."

Rose smiled grimly at everyone. "That's just the bare minimum, though. Not many more reforms were made since then, other than making culling illegal save for capital offenses. But for all that happened, many are grateful for the miracle that came with those reforms. Now we just have to wait for time to play its part."

Karkat kicked a rock in the path, staring at the floor contemplatively. "…so you're saying, according to history, shit wasn't getting done, but some fucker committing fucking hara-kiri with his matesprit made two Highblood shitheads change their minds."

"Like I said," Rose replied, "it was considered a miracle. But considering the draught ended right after their deaths, any Purple worth their salt would consider it a sign from the gods that something had to be done, personal agenda or no."

"How the FUCK would you know what some dipshit Purple of ye olden times would think?" Karkat groused. Rose gave him a grin.

"Because the Purple in charge was my Ancestor, Roxy Lalonde."


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

This shit was getting waaaaaaay too freaky for Karkat's tastes, and all he wanted to do was lie on the ground in fetal position until this fucked-up dream decided to end. But he forced himself to keep walking until they came to what looked like a large hive carved into the side of a mountain.

"Here we are," Rose said, smiling. "Casa de Jade. Also, don't mind her family, they're harmless."

"What fami—" Vriska's question was cut off when a huge barkbeast pounced on her and proceeded to lick her face until it was soaked. "GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

"BECQUEREL, NO! That is NOT how we treat guests!"

Karkat looked up, seeing a tall troll jump from a hive window and drop to the ground, hurrying over and pulling the barkbeast from Vriska. "Heehee…sorry for that. He gets really overenthusiastic when we have company. But he means no harm." She looked up, squealing. "OMIGOD, ROSE!" She let go of the barkbeast and hurried over, hugging Rose. "It's been so LONG!"

Rose hugged her back, smiling. "Sorry, but you know how things can get," she said. Jade rolled her eyes.

"Yes, yes, I know. You weirdos and your Grimdarkyness." She wiggled her fingers all spooky-like, looking around at everyone. "So….what's up with the party? My wiggling day isn't for another four perigrees."

"Oh, trust me, it's a doozy of a story," Rose replied, patting her shoulder. "You wouldn't happen to know where John is, would you?"

Jade snorted as she led the way inside. "Oh, you know John, always jumping from place to place. The boy can NOT stay still, the airhead." She looked over curiously when Karkat seemed to choke on his own air. "…You alright there?"

Karkat turned red, saying nothing, observing this Jade. She was a little taller than her human counterpart, with messier hair and more rustic clothing, which had an olive wrap around her hips. As an Olive, she was as much barkbeast-like as Karkat recalled Nepeta being meowbeast-like, especially being reminded about her horns, one of which was thick and stuck upright and the other of similar size, but with a bend to it, giving off the impression of a curious barkbeast, if her demeanor didn't already do that for her.

He walked into her hive, which was pretty much about as rustic as he would have expected, but it had some interestingly high-tech things inside, as well as fine decorations, some of which looked pretty outlandish. What stood out most, however, were all the barkbeasts lounging about. Just from a glance, Karkat could spot ten.

Jade sat down beside her enormous one that followed her inside, smiling. "So, what's this all about?" she asked. Rose sat down and began telling her everything Karkat told her. Jade listened in, fascinated, her eyes shining and her ears flicking.

"Woooooow," she murmured, by this point having changed positions so she was lying on her stomach with her chin propped up on her hands. "That's just awesome!" She smiled at Karkat and the others. "What interesting lives you all lead!"

Vriska was pushing one of the barkbeast pups away from her that kept trying to get to her horns. "Whatever you say," she muttered.

"Interesting isn't the word I'd use," Karkat said, glancing over at Terezi, who was asleep in a literal barkbeast pup pile. "Terrifying. Horrible. Fucking BULLSHIT. Those are better adjectives." He leaned back against a wall, sighing. "But THIS isn't our home. And we had shit to do back in our world."

"I'd imagine so," Jade said, smiling, sitting up. "Well, until you DO find a way home, mi hive es su hive. Anyone hungry?"

Dave sat up. "I'll take a whack at your orchard," he said. Jade rolled her eyes, tossing him a bag.

"Only what you can hold in there, and nothing more, you greedy featherbeast," she said, flicking his horn. "Or I'll make you work until your claws fall off to make up for denting my profits."

"Yes, madam crazy," he muttered, heading out. Jade snorted, sitting back.

"I swear, the guy's an addict," she said, shaking her head. "Anyway, like I was saying, food?"

Gamzee raised his hand, and Karkat grabbed it to lower it. "You ate enough at Rose's," he groused. "Don't be a fuckin' rude greedy prick." Gamzee pouted.

"Oh, he looks like he could use some meat on his bones anyway," Jade said, standing and heading into the nutritionblock, leaving Gamzee to give Karkat a smirk.

"…..wipe that look off your fucking face, asshole, before I wipe it off for you," Karkat growled, crossing his arms, jumping and cringing when one of the barkbeasts began yelping and barking next to his head, riling up the others in the room. "HARLEY, SHUT YOUR BEASTS UP!"

Jade hurried out and straight past him for the door. "Someone's here!" she exclaimed, running out of the hive. Everyone looked at one another before following, most getting tripped up by the barkbeasts. Karkat looked around, seeing nothing.

"…I think your barkbeasts have a few screws loose," he said, scowling. "There isn't anyone he—"

" _GERONIMOOOOOOOOOO—_ "

Karkat yelped, flying back on his ass when something cannoned out of the air and skidded right in front of him, kicking up a wall of dirt. "WHAT THE ABSOLUTE SPHINCTER-TEARING FUCKING SHIT!?" he screamed, wiping some dirt off his face, glowering. "WHAT! THE FUCK!?"

A troll about Dave's height was righting himself, rubbing his head through a leather helmet with goggles attached. "Heh, sorry about that," he said. "Still trying to get the hang of my new boots." He struck a somewhat ridiculous pose that highlighted a pair of thick knee-high boots that had ridges along the sides. "New invention of mine. Still working on the landing." He stood up properly, tugging his helmet off.

He had short messy hair that complimented two sets of horns, the first set very short and curved, the second set longer with an elegant wave. His face was good-natured, and would have been aristocratic, had it not been for the almost-goofy smile amplified by large front fangs. Unlike Rose and Jade, whose eyes only had hints of color underneath the grey, his eyes were a bright, dazzling indigo blue.

Karkat stared, trying to come up with something intelligible to say as the troll turned to Vriska and grinned. "Jade, so good to see you—"

"John, I'm over here!" Jade sighed. "I swear to gog…" John blinked, squinting at Vriska before blinking.

"Heh, oh, right. Duh!" He dug around into his pocket, taking out a pair of rectangular-framed glasses, putting them on. "Oh! Hey there." He smacked his head lightly. "I swear, I'd mistake a mountain for a cloud, as bad as my eyes are—"

He was cut off by the only thing that Karkat had come to mind.

" _ **JOHN FUCKING EGBERT!"**_


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

John blinked staring at Karkat. "…..uhhh…..do I know you?" he asked delicately, then grinned charmingly. "I mean, if an Indigo did something to you and you think I'm him, I KNOW all us Indigos look alike—"

"Stop," Karkat said. "Stop talking. Just…." He paced around in place for a few moments, flexing his hands. Here was John fucking Egbert. In the troll flesh. AS AN INDIGO. Of ALL the castes for John to be in, a higher-than-thou, stuck up pile of aggression hormones INDIGO was not what he had expected.

Oh, and the idiot asshole was looking CONCERNED. TYPICAL Egbert. Karkat walked over to a stump and sat down, his head between his knees and hands clenched into his hair, taking long, deep, angry breaths.

"…um…is…he alright?" John whispered to Jade. "He's not…crazy, is he?" Rose rolled her eyes.

"He's not crazy, just incapable of expressing himself without yelling," she replied matter-of-factly. Dave walked up with his bag of apples, crunching on one in his hand.

"…..Who the fuck broke the midget?" he asked between bites. "Oh, hey John. Back already?"

"Oh, sure am!" John said, perking up and holding up a large bag. "Aaaaaand I brought gifts from far away lands!" He laughed, jumping and dodging around, keeping the bag out of Jade's reach.

Vriska eyed John over, smirking. "Vriska approves," she murmured, ignoring the look Kanaya gave her, but pretty unable to ignores the hiss Dave sent her way. "…did you just fucking HISS at me, Strider?"

Dave bared his mouthful of sharp teeth at her. "Filthy claws OFF my bro," he said, the 'or else' going unsaid, his right hand flexing slightly. Vriska scoffed.

"What, are you his moirail or something?" she said, not noticing Karkat look up. Dave glowered harder through his shades, if that were possible.

"No," he replied tersely. "But I don't HAVE to be to keep a shit-blooded Cerulean away from him. Consider this your one and only warning, if you know what's good for you." He headed over to John, snatching the bag up.

"Aw, Dave, you suck!" John pouted, grabbing it back and rummaging through it, pulling out a few things while everyone else watched. Rose sat down next to Karkat.

"Confused?" she said. Karkat's jaw tightened, refusing to answer. "Don't be. John's something of a mutation of his own. The downright friendliest Indigo you'll ever meet. Never took a single dose of medication in his entire life. You can imagine how ostracized he is by his own caste, so he takes to hanging out with the rest of the rejects in this sector." Her tone was joking, but her expression was almost doleful.

"…he's exactly the same," Karkat said, staring at John. "Same stupid grin, same stupid attitude. Shit, even the same stupid blue eyes and fucking overbite. Only difference is he has fucking horns." He rubbed his face, letting out a shuddery sigh. "I don't know what I fucking expected…but…even though he's the SAME…"

"I get it," Rose said. "You actually wanted him to be different. Because it would take the sting out of being reminded of your John back home." She smiled at the look Karkat gave her. "I'm very good at reading people, Karkat. I can almost hear your voice echoing in the air. The more people internalize, the louder I can hear it." She reached over, papping his head. "But you MIGHT want to hold off on the Spades feelings for now. John's practically incapable of hating ANYONE."

Karkat sputtered, his face going red, and Rose laughed, standing.

"I'll go give him a briefing on what's going on. And see what it is he brought me!" She hopped up, hurrying over to John, who just gave Jade a large animal pelt, which she slung around her shoulders.

"…okay, and for Rose, I brought this!" He took out a shiny black sphere. "I actually found an abandoned Grimdark temple! It was empty, save for this. I figured you'd be able to find a use for it, rather than letting it collect dust."

Rose took it, turning it over in her hands. "…It's lovely, John," she said, kissing his cheek. "You always find the best stuff for me." John grinned bashful-like, scratching his head.

"Aw, nothing but the best for my moirail!" he said. "And speaking of me being a total Paleslut, I found THIS for Dave!" He reached into the bag and took out a sword hilt that had only about three inches of actual sword piece left on it. Dave took it, looking it over.

"Nice," he said dryly. John rolled his eyes.

"Snap it out."

Dave arched a brow, but snapped the sword outward with a flick of his wrist, the rest of the sword snapping out from the hidden panel of the shard. "…..okay, I take it back, you're a god in the flesh, and I will TOTALLY embarrass you in front of this company by getting my fucking praise on."

John blushed, waving him off. "No, no, please don't do that!" he said. "Especially in front of company. I totally don't want them getting the wrong idea about me!"

"Awww, what, that you're a total sweetie pie?" Jade said, hugging John around the shoulders and pinching his cheeks. "That you're just the marshmallow gumdroppiest lump of sugar?"

"Oh my god!" John groaned, throwing his hands in the air. "That's it! I'm cutting ALL of you off! TOTALLY not making ANY of my quadruple-chocolate lava cakes, EVER again!"

"NOT THE QUADRUPLE-CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKES!" Dave shouted dramatically. "I BEG of thee, noblest of Blues, do not deprive us lowly peons of your holiest of baked goods!"

John whined, burying his face in his hands. Karkat felt the urge to walk over and punch him in the bulge, it was so adorable. NO. NO, he was NOT going be going Spades for John!

THIS one, anyway.

"Okay, I think we've humiliated John enough," Rose said, smiling. "Let's head back inside. We have a LOT to bring up to speed with John." She steered her Indigo friend inside. "Trust me, you're gonna want to be sitting down for this."

"…okay?" John said, looking uncertain.

* * *

Karkat was regretting his decision to have Rose bring him to John. The fuckass had NOT stopped asking questions about Alternia since he'd heard the story, flitting around from person to person, looking giddy enough to start levitating.

At least Terezi was matching John's enthusiasm, and the two of them were currently grinning like loons and having a shrieking match over who could come up with the most interesting thing to scream about their respective worlds.

"WELL WE HAVE FREAKING POWERS THAT ONLY GET STRONGER WITH GOD TIER!" Terezi screed. John paused, huffing.

"Damn, you got me there," he said. "You win THIS round. So what's YOUR totally awesome power?"

"I can envision results of people's decisions and alternate possibilities," she replied, grinning. "I can also play a WICKED fucking mind game."

"Neat," John said. "So can Rose. I'd like to see a mind-game contest. THAT would be awesome to watch!"

"Hey, leave me out of this," Rose said, snorting.

John looked around at the others. "So what're YOUR awesome powers?" he asked, his eyes practically shining. God, Karkat never wanted to punch something harder than he did right now…

Vriska grinned. "You're looking at the Thief of Light," she said. "I'm God Tier all over, Joooooooohn, wanna see?" She ignored Dave's glowering.

John's eyes just shined brighter. "DO I EVER!" he exclaimed. Vriska smirked and stood up, reaching into her Aspect to bring it out…

…only nothing happened.

"…what the absolute FUCK…?" she cried, looking at her hands.

"What is it?" Terezi said, frowning. Vriska's hands shook slightly, a hint of panic in her eyes.

"…I cant God Tier," she said. She tried to summon her Fluorite Octet, to no avail. "…I cant get my Fluorite…! What the FUCK is going on!?"

Karkat stiffened and tried to summon his sickles. Not a one. "….FUCK," he spat. "The game doesn't exist in this universe! That means no God Tier. That means we pretty much fucking LOST everything we ever fucking captchalogued…!" He suddenly felt very vulnerable without his weapons. "Like blank fucking slates!"

"Like pressing 'New Game' on Legend of Troll Zelda," John said sagely. "You gotta find the old man to give you your sword."

Karkat WANTED to punch John for the commentary, but the analogy was so goddamn beautiful he just COULDN'T. Instead, he punched the stone wall, biting back a hiss of pain, but at least he felt better.

Jade tipped her head to the side. "…If it's weapons you want, I've got you covered," she said, shrugging. "It's a hobby of mine, and John brings back some REALLY interesting pieces from all over the world!" She hopped up. "Come on, I'll show you my collection!" She hurried off to the back of her hive, the others in tow.

Karkat was not ashamed to admit he almost drooled at the literal armory Jade had set up back here. Everything from blades to rifles and everything in between was here, and he immediately honed in on a large sickle that didn't have a twin, but it was big enough to be wielded two-handed, and still small enough to be used one-handed if need be.

Terezi poked around until she found a rapier-like sword with a small hilt, swinging it with a happy grin.

Kanaya was somewhat disappointed that there weren't any chainsaws, but she did manage to find a short but broad sword that had serrated edges all around.

Vriska paused, looking up from picking out a cutlass. "Hey, wait just a fucking minute," she said, glowering at Gamzee. "Back in that town, Makara here brought out his clubs. Where even the fuck did he get it from!?"

Karkat frowned, recalling it well. "…Gamzee, where DID you get it from?"

Gamzee shrugged, looking over a mace with interest. "Just had it," he replied. "I don't motherfuckin' ask what kind o' motherfuckin' miracles just happen."

"Oh bullshit," Vriska snapped. "How the FUCK did you manage to keep YOUR shit!?"

Kanaya frowned. "…Gamzee, do you still use just Clubkind?" she asked. Gamzee shook his head.

"Nah, Jokerkind. More motherfuckin' stuff to use."

Karkat stared, feeling a migraine come on. "You have to be fucking kidding me," he groaned, running a hand down his face. "You mean to tell me JOKERKIND can transcend this kind of fuckery!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, UNIVERSE!? I SWEAR TO GOD, I WILL CUT WHOEVER THE FUCK THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!"

Rose walked over, patting his shoulder. "No use screaming at the gods," she said. "That's just how it is. And anyway, you have a shiny new toy to play with."

"Yeah!" John said, grinning. "Troll Link, you just got your sword from the old man! Now your quest can begin!"

"I swear to whatever god it is you pray to, Egbert, I will tear out your gallsphincter and make you eat it," Karkat growled. "And when I'm fucking done with that, I'll tear out your intestines and jump-rope with them before strangling you to death, and it will be an image that will fucking lull me to sleep for sweeps to come."

John grimaced. "…You…SURE you're a Burgundy?" he asked delicately. Karkat just snarled at him.

"You sure YOU'RE a fuckin' Indigo, Egbert!?" he snapped back. "Maybe I'm just a FREAK like you are! For someone who doesn't fucking fit HIS caste bill, you sure make a lot of fucking assumptions about everyone else, don't you!?"

"Karkat!" Kanaya admonished. "Calm down, please! This is nothing to get worked up over!"

Karkat scowled, but took a deep breath and let it out, the haze of anger fading from his vision, only to get an eyeful of John's hurt expression.

Shit. That wasn't a look Karkat could ever remember seeing on John's face. Before he could grumble out an apology, John mumbled an excuse to leave and slipped out of the room, Rose hurrying after him.

Karkat heard a loud growl and turned in time to see Jade grab Dave's arm to keep him from punching Karkat in the face.

"Dave, don't!" she cried, keeping Dave's arm pinned down. Dave just growled louder, lurching over to loom over Karkat.

"The only FREAKS around here are YOU!" he spat. "Nothin' I hate more than self-righteous fucks who think they're better than everyone else!" He jerked his arm free from Jade. "You're no better than a goddamn Cerulean, you SHIT!" He shoved Karkat back and stalked after John and Rose, snarling at Vriska en route for good measure.

Karkat remained sitting on the floor, clenching his hand into his hair. "Shit," he muttered. "Fucking SHIT…" He was too used to the John who would take his 'totally scathing trolling' with a laugh. Kanaya was right. These versions were fundamentally different.

Rose was way more secretive about things.

Dave's initial reaction to everything that pissed him off was anger and violence.

Jade seemed to try to be playing mediator between everyone.

And John…this John had obviously dealt with some real shit in his life, the kind a mutant freak like himself had gone through without the luxury of everyone accepting the fake-out. He had wanted a different John than what he knew, but this...

"…shit."


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Things got awkward quickly after that, and Rose came back in to announce that she was going to head back to her hive with Dave and John, and asked if anyone else wanted to come. Terezi and Kanaya volunteered, and Vriska was going to, but Dave's hold on his sword paired with the look of absolute death threatened a beheading to come, so she stayed behind with Karkat.

Gamzee was only going with Rose because he wanted to poke around at her 'motherfuckin' skull collection', but Karkat had a feeling Gamzee was as curious about her Grimdark religion as she was about the Subjugglators.

Jade proved to be a great hostess, and held Karkat no ill will about his faux pas. "He's just sensitive about not fitting in," she said, shooing one of her barkbeasts out of the room she was setting out for Karkat, having already gotten the gist he wasn't fond of the beasts. "He hides it really well though." She frowned sadly. "…he hides a LOT of stuff really well."

Karkat sat on a chair, crossing his arms. "…just too used to my John Egbert," he muttered. "The stupid fuckass wasn't sensitive about ANYTHING. He took the literal worst I could summon up from the hellish hate of my soul and would laugh. Thought my Black feelings for him were FUNNY."

Jade smiled a little. "He sounds like a nice guy," she said. "I'm sure he'd make you a good moirail, then."

Karkat's expression went dark. "I HAD a moirail," he replied, his claws digging into his arms. "A fucking GOOD moirail, who could take all the shit I threw out and dish it right back because he was just as fucking damaged as I was." He growled, running a hand through his hair. "Fucker gave a fuck of a good shooshpap, though. Now he's an entire existence away."

"…I'm sorry," Jade said. "I really am." She sat down across from him. "I cant promise everything will be alright. That'd be a stupid thing to say. But learning to lean on our own stock is what we 'freaks' have to do." She gave him a smile. "Never met another troll until I was just shy of five sweeps old, and John showed up exploring. He and his lusus helped me build this hive." She hugged her knees.

"…Becquerel isn't a lusus, and neither are any of the other barkbeasts. I was literally raised by wild barkbeasts because my own lusus was killed for fun by a bunch of Blues." She sighed. "But even now, no one but my friends wants to converse with a 'savage' troll." She wiped her damp eyes. "…I really would like to make more friends."

Karkat swallowed a little, looking out the window. "…Hope you do," he replied. "…and…thanks for not…you know….treating me like a fucking mental case."

Jade smiled. "Of course not. Everyone loses their temper every once and awhile, it's nothing to hang onto."

"Bet Egbert hasn't," Karkat snorted, stretching, not noticing Jade's odd expression. "…anyway, I'm going to turn in."

Jade nodded. "Sure thing," she replied, standing. "Good day, Karkat." She headed out of the room, leaving him to crawl into the small recuperacoon for a decent sleep, or so he hoped.

* * *

Yeah, hoped too soon. Even in the recuperacoon, Karkat couldn't get decently relaxed enough and only managed a few hours at best, and before he knew it, the sun was setting. He finally called it a lost cause and got out, tugging his clothes back on and grabbing his new sickle before heading outside.

At very least, he felt much better with a weapon in his hands, and he'd best get used to wielding it properly. The length of the handle was something to get used to, but at least the weight of the blade wasn't an issue. It was actually pretty lightweight for as sturdy and sharp it was.

He gave it a few practice swings, easily trimming off a few branches from the trees around the hive, and actually liking the extra length the longer handle was giving him. All the better to decapitate a much-taller skull monster with—

 _"KARKAT, NO—!"_

 _A flash of pain. What felt like the very life being knocked right out of him._

 _ **"KARKAT!"**_

Karkat collapsed to the ground, his hands clutching his head. FUCK, what the hell was that?!

The sound of a twig snapping flipped his attack switch right on, and he grabbed his sickle and spun around to attack, BARELY managing to halt his strike less than an inch away from John's head.

John froze in place, not moving so much as a finger. Karkat took a moment to gather his senses before lowering the sickle. They stood there in silence.

"….I…just…forgot my bag here…" John said shakily. "…I…can come back later…if this is a bad time…" He took a step backward.

"NO!" Karkat shouted, almost groaning when he saw John flinch slightly. "No. Stop flinching…..fuck." He rubbed his hand over his face. "…you just startled me, is all, it wasn't you personally." He looked at John's face, biting back a self-hating growl at the twinge of fear and worry that was still there. "…'m sorry," he grumbled.

"….sorry, I couldn't hear y—"

"I SAID I WAS SORRY, EGBERT!" Pause. "Fuck, sorry—"

"Oh, no no no, it's alright!" John said, holding his hands up. "Really, that's water under the bridge! ….and…Rose already told me you have a SLIGHT anger problem…and that I shouldn't take it personally."

"Damn right you shouldn't!" Karkat snapped, then bit his lip and forced himself to use a conversational volume of voice. "…you shouldn't take it personally. I'm not angry with you. So…yeah." Goddamn this awkwardness…

"Alright then!" John said, smiling, something Karkat would deny until his dying day he missed. "We got off on the wrong foot, I guess. Reintroduction time!" He dramatically straightened and put on an aristocratic look, proving Karkat right that it was the smile that ruined the Highblood image. "I'm John Egbert. A pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand.

Karkat snorted loudly, but took it. "Karkat Vantas, you fuckass," he replied. That made John's Highblood image crack into another smile.

"Cool. So, what were you doing before I got here? You know. With that." He pointed gingerly at Karkat's sickle. Karkat picked it back up.

"…I could show you, if you wanted."

This time, he felt the corners of his mouth twitch at the beaming smile John gave him.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Pretty much everyone in Jade's hive was surprised to see John and Karkat walking in for breakfast together, and even more surprised to see Karkat smiling and John laughing.

"—mean to tell me you never fucking took up a blade! Fast as YOU are?"

"Hey, don't judge!" John replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Knowing me, I'd cut myself up more than my opponent! I mean, you've SEEN how great I can stick a landing!" He shoved Karkat when the smaller troll snorted. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!"

"Evening, John!" Jade said, finishing up with breakfast. "Glad you stopped by." She smiled. "You two kiss and make up?"

John's cheeks turned blue and Karkat's whole face went red. Vriska snorted and was about to put in a comment when Jade suddenly dropped something on the floor, looking surprised. "…You alright there, Jade?" she said, arching a brow. "What's got you all freaking out?"

Jade flushed with embarrassment and started to clean up. "…Sorry," she said. "Just…Karkat's coloring is a bit…brighter than I was expecting…"

SHIT. Karkat jerked the collar of his shirt higher up on reflex, ducking his head down. Jade eeped, trying to save face.

"No, no, I didn't mean that's BAD, I mean…!" She chewed her lip. "I don't think any LESS of you for it, I just didn't expect you to have…" Her cheeks turned darker. "…You're just…wearing a darker identity color…and I'm totally overreacting here, aren't I?" She tugged on a lock of her hair.

Karkat forced down his blushing, something he was pretty good at doing by this point, and lowered the collar. "…These aren't even mine, they belong to that dick Strider," he muttered.

Jade let out an almost unconvincing nervous giggle. "Oh, right, right…want to hide your…um…mutated color. Gotcha. TOTALLY got you. Um, I'm going to walk away for a few minutes and try not to swallow my knee next." She scurried out.

"…the fuck is HER problem?" Karkat asked, turning to John, who was already en route to follow her.

"I'm gonna see if she's okay," John said, hurrying through the door. Vriska and Karkat stared at each other for a moment.

"…I don't know about you, but I'm going to go ahead and dig in," Vriska said, grabbing a plateful of food. Karkat rolled his eyes, doing the same.

* * *

By the time Jade and John came back, everything appeared to be as normal, and Karkat wasn't about to stir up the awkwardness again, so it just went unspoken of. They all finished eating just as the door slammed open and Dave ran through, slamming it shut again behind him.

"Holy SHIT, Strider, can you go ANYWHERE without someone trying to fucking kill you?" Karkat asked, staring. Dave glowered, straightening up.

"Fuck you, and fuck your face," he shot back, turning to John. "And YOU, you fuckass, why the hell did you leave without telling me or Rose?!"

John looked properly repentant. "I'm sorry, I just…forgot my bag here, and thought I'd just leave early to get it, no biggie! And besides, I left a note!" Dave growled, shoving his hand in his pocket and taking out a small crumpled post-it.

" **BRB** is NOT a fucking NOTE, you dick!" he hissed, then sighed, collapsing in a chair, running a hand through his hair. "…brilliant of me to NOT bring my sword, though, so running was my only option. Luckily the barkbeasts held them off in the woods."

"Is it that stupid Clovis again?" Jade asked, bringing him a glass of juice. He drained the glass in one go, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Yeah," he replied stiffly, saying nothing more.

Karkat scowled. "This is the second time I've heard about this 'Clovis' fucker," he said. "Just who IS this guy?"

Jade sat down, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Clovis is a Cerulean whose guardian is a high-ranking official here," she said grimly. "It's a pretty common practice for the Blues to hand-pick their replacements, or raise them to put them in important places. Nepotism at its FINEST. But Clovis is really one giant piece of work. He leads a gang of Blues that down-low call themselves the New Blue Hues, after that disgusting terrorist hate group from before the reformation times. Cross them ONCE, and you're on their shit list for LIFE."

"So what the fuck did Strider do? Look at him with his ugly face?" Karkat jumped out of the way as Dave took a swipe at him with his claws.

"I punched the fucker in the face when we were younger," Dave growled. "Made him cry, and he's been out for my blood ever sense. The only one he's afraid of is Rose, and I wont stick around her all the time and ruin her already SHINING social life." He leaned back in the chair, sighing again. "I've thought about just packing up and leaving, but I don't know WHERE."

John frowned. "Gosh, Dave, if you told me that, I would've looked around FOR you," he said. "I can start making a list of great places I've been—"

"Don't bother, John, I'm just talkin' out of my ass," Dave said tiredly. "Gimme a few minutes, and I'll be fine."

Karkat remained quiet, noticing Jade and John exchange a worried look before John jumped, fumbling around in his pocket and taking out what looked like a PDA. "Oh, it's Rose," he said, holding it up and pressing a button, Rose's image showing up on the screen. "Hi, Rose! Sorry I left without telling you—"

"John, forget the stupid 'BRB' note, I just found out something REALLY big!" Rose said, looking serious. "You know that orb you brought back to me? It's not just some bauble, it's something with REAL actual power!"

John blinked, smiling. "Oh, neat!" He exclaimed. "Do I know how to pick out gifts or wh—"

"John, you need to get Karkat and Vriska back to my place!" Rose cut in. "If they're looking for a way back home, this MAY be the only clue how!"

Dead silence. Karkat jumped up and grabbed the PDA. "Are you fucking kidding me, Lalonde, because I swear to every god you PRAY TO—"

"Not kidding you, Karkat. I'm serious. This orb has some REAL power, and I'd rather not discuss it where the video feed could be picked up by someone. Just hurry back here!"

"Great, couldn't figure that out BEFORE I ran here?" Dave groused. Rose looked concerned.

"…If it's easier, I could come over first, and walk you back—"

Dave cut off THAT suggestion. "I don't want you to hold my hand all the fucking time, Rose," he said. "We'll all go. Safety in numbers, right? We'll be there in no time, don't worry about it."

Rose chewed her lip. "…Alright," she said. "If you're not here in an hour, I'm coming anyway."

"Deal. See you soon." He stood back as the PDA was turned off. "Welp, let's get going then, and hope Jade's barkbeasts scared them off."

Everyone nodded, heading out.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

It wouldn't have mattered HOW inconspicuous they tried to look, there was something inherently odd about the group that was walking down the path into the town, be it Jade, who was wearing John's gift pelt around her shoulders, Dave, who appeared to be pretty much the only troll who wore shades at night, or Vriska and John, two Blues in that hodgepodge of a caste grab-bag.

It made Karkat nervous. He never liked it when people stared at him. It always made him feel exposed, like they could see his blood through his skin. "Don't those fuckers have anything better to do than stare?" he growled. Dave snorted next to him.

"Just keep looking straight ahead and keep that resting bitch face on," he replied. "Most of the time, they'll just leave you alone." He almost faltered a step, making a sharp growling sound under his breath.

"The fuck's wrong with—"

"Shut the fuck up and walk faster. ALL of you, walk the fuck faster!" He sped up, still looking ahead. Jade kept up with him, looking worried.

"Dave, I can call Rose, if we need her—" She cut off when a group of trolls smoothly stepped out of the crowd and in their path, making a clear surrounding. She stopped short, feeling John bump into her.

John looked around, swallowing hard. "…oh boy," he said worriedly. "This isn't good…"

Karkat's hands flexed with nervousness, looking around at the surrounding trolls, noticing that all of them wore strictly blue outfits and not just blood-corresponding singular articles. A couple of them had even gone so far as to dye their horns their colors, as though they couldn't be proud ENOUGH of having Teal, Cerulean, or Indigo blood.

A troll bigger than the others stepped out of the group, a Cerulean blood. His horns were sickle-shaped, and looked like he sharpened them to be just as deadly too. He was dressed in a full-body cerulean suit that looked tailored and expensive, and his long hair was braided back with gold thread. Despite the immaculate image, his face was less to be admired in the ways of aesthetics.

"Well, well," he said, his voice grating and oily-sounding. "Look what we have here. Just cant stay away from an ass-beating, can you, Strider?" His eyes swept the group. "Or did you bring a whole group of ass-beating replacements?"

Dave sneered. "I don't stoop to your dirty politics, Clovis," he growled. "We're just heading off to ROSE'S place. And she KNOWS we're coming."

Clovis's jaw twitched slightly. "Well then," he said, flicking his hand out, a large mace appearing in it. "I guess we'll just have to beat the shit-blood out of you quickly, in that case."

"Okay, okay," John said, stepping in front of Dave, holding his hands up. "This is ridiculous, alright? There's no need for violence right now, especially not with a crowd that could get hurt—" He yelped when an Indigo shoved him back.

"Shut your mouth, you freak!" the Indigo snapped. "You're a disgrace to your own caste, consorting with the likes of THEM!" She hissed. "I'm almost ashamed to share a blood color with you, seeing how pathetic one of my own can be!"

Karkat stepped up, growling. "The only pathetic thing I see is a wound-up bitch with indigo piss swilling through her veins," he said. "Step the fuck off and let us pass!"

Clovis laughed. "Where do you even FIND these rejects, Strider?" he snorted. "Do they just gravitate toward you, like a defect magnet?" He only laughed harder at the pissed-off expression that came over Dave's face. "It would honestly be a KINDNESS to do some off-the-record culling right now…"

Vriska barely managed to keep Karkat from diving on Clovis at the word 'culling'. "Calm your nubs, Karkat!" she hissed. "You want to get your ass killed?" She struggled to hold him back, a feat much like having to bathe a cranky meowbeast.

Clovis glanced at Vriska, snorting. "A Cerulean Sister with these reject fuckers? I shudder to think of what made YOU think this crowd was anything worth consorting with." He smirked. "You must be new around here, then. Ditch these rejects and join the fun on OUR end. I'll bet you'll enjoy it."

The only thing keeping Vriska from considering it just for laughs was the not-so-subtle once-over he gave her. Ugh, the creep. That was totally HER shtick. "Yeaaaaaaaah, no, I think I'll pass," she replied, giving him a less-than-appreciative once-over in return. "Doubt you could handle me, anyway. John, on the other hand—"

"I SWEAR TO GOD, YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Dave snapped, his nerves already frayed and sizzling. He turned back to Clovis. "If it's a strife you want, it's a strife you'll fucking get! One-on-one, without your fucking pack dogs to back you up, you sewer-blooded piece of sh—"

He was cut off when Clovis swung his mace and whacked Dave across the face with it, sending him crashing back into the rest of the group.

Karkat yelped when he was knocked back, growling as he shoved Jade off of him. "Cheap fucking shot," he snarled, grabbing Dave's shoulder and turning him over.

Dave's glasses were shattered on the ground, leaving tear-filled eyes exposed. His irises were bright red, but not as red as the blood pouring from between the fingers that were covering his face.

Bright, candy red blood.

A sharp surge of instinctual protectiveness shot through Karkat's nerves, forgetting entirely that this wasn't HIS Dave. _Dave was hurt. DAVE WAS BLEEDING. HIS BLOOD-MATE WAS HURT! KILL!_ _ **KILL!**_

Karkat jumped up, his sickle snapping into his hand, rushing at Clovis and slashing at his head. Clovis blocked with his mace and kicked Karkat in the chest, knocking the wind out of him, but not the fight. He didn't even think of breathing, or even what Clovis's kick might have broken as he jumped back up, snarling and baring his teeth.

"Oh, the little freak wants to fight, is that it?" Clovis laughed. "Well let's DO this, little freak!" He braced himself down when Karkat sprung at him again, jerking with a hiss when Karkat jumped high but struck from below, catching him in the back of the hand. He snarled, swinging his mace up to knock the sickle away, grabbing Karkat by the neck. "SICK AND TIRED OF LITTLE FUCKERS LIKE YOU WHO DON'T KNOW THEIR PLACES!" He disarmed the mace, instead using his fist to punch Karkat in the face.

Karkat yelped when he was hit, snapping his teeth at the fist and missing, jerking hard when his own candy-red blood gushed from his nose. Clovis sneered, throwing Karkat to the ground. "I guess they're just breeding out ALL SORTS of trash, aren't they?" He kicked Karkat away from him.

Vriska jumped up and caught him, baring her teeth at him. This wasn't a lick of fun anymore, not by a long shot. She pressed her fingers to her temples, taking control of a Teal that was next to Clovis, making her equip up a tonfa and swing it at his head.

Clovis blocked with his armored forearm, growling at Vriska. "Oh, you wanna play mind games, is that it?" he growled, his eyes glowing a bright cerulean. Vriska scowled, tensing up when she felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of her head.

Jade's hands shook hard, trying to fight off the psychic power. "N…no…!" she whimpered, tearing up. "…d…don't make me…!" Clovis laughed.

"To blow a caste-traitor's brains out, or to not," he said, grinning. "Personally, I think it would be a treat." His eyes glowed brighter, and Vriska heard the gun cocking and Jade cry harder.

"Stop it."

Clovis looked up, seeing John standing up from checking on Dave, his hands clenched and shaking. "Sit your ass right back down, you coward," he snorted. John said nothing, stepping over Dave and up toward Clovis.

"J…John…." Jade stammered, her hands shaking harder. "…don't…please…."

"…You hurt my friends," John said. "Stop hurting my friends!" Clovis snorted, dropping his hold on Jade's control.

"And why the fuck should I do that?" he mocked, crossing his arms. "And if I don't? Who's gonna do anything about it? You? Don't make me l—"

There was a sharp rushing sound and then silence.

And it took a moment for everyone to realize that Clovis's head was no longer on his shoulders. But not before noticing a gigantic blue hammer in John's hand.

Clovis's body remained upright for a few moments, the crossed arms dropping limply to the sides, swaying before dropping. John let the top of the hammer drop to the ground, where it cracked and shattered the pavement from the density alone.

"…J…John…?" Jade said, her voice terrified and shaking. "…please…no…"

"Stupid peasantbloods," John said, the sharpness in his voice making even Vriska flinch. "Don't know how to take a simple fucking order." He bared his fangs, his hand clenching tightly. "Stupid….FUCKING…..PEASANTBLOODS." He picked the hammer back up like it weighed nothing, turning to stare at the rest of the gang that had his friends surrounded.

Even from where Karkat was laying, he could see bright light in John's eyes turn sinister, his pupils dilated into near pinpricks, the jovial look on his face turned murderous. The face of true Highblood psychosis about to go horribly wrong.

Karkat was correct in his assumptions when one of the Teals attempted to run, and triggered John into attack mode, swinging the hammer with ease and taking out whole sections of multiple trolls' bodies with a single swing.

Jade ducked down with her hands over her head, sobbing hysterically and crying out for Rose. Dave was struggling to get up, spitting out blood from the blow to his face. Vriska just seemed to shocked to move. Karkat lay shaking on the ground, getting horrible flashbacks of other Highblood friends of his having gone insane.

A scream made them all look up, seeing John pinning a Cerulean down by the chest with his foot. The Cerulean was screaming and crying for mercy, clawing at his leg, thrashing and trying to get out from under him. John ground his heel into her chest, and everyone heard a snap.

"PLEASE!" the troll screamed, coughing up blood. "PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME! PLEASE!" She sobbed harder, seeing John raise his hammer. "FUCKING GOD, PLEASE—"

Karkat just barely managed to clench his eyes shut before the hammer fell, but he couldn't block out the horrible sound it made connecting with the troll's head. There was silence, blessed silence, and he dared to peek his eyes open again. He wished he hadn't.

John was still standing on the troll, covered in various hues of blue, an almost content and serene look on his face. His tongue slipped out of his mouth, licking at the cerulean blood that had been splattered on his face, grinning dementedly.

Vriska made a move to get up, but was jerked back to the ground by Dave, who spat out a tooth. "Don't….fucking move…" he growled softly, his eyes blazing. "He just…slaughtered a fuck ton of Blues…you wanna be fucking NEXT?" His eyes flicked over her shoulder, and an immense sigh of relief left him. "Oh thank FUCK…!"

"JOHN!" Rose came rushing over with Kanaya, Terezi, and Gamzee in tow, not even looking at the carnage as she went straight for John. John snarled, jerking his hammer up again. "JOHN, STOP!" Rose ducked under the swipe he took at her head, pressing her hands to his face. "LISTEN TO ME, JOHN! I'M HERE!" She pressed her fingers into his skin, purple tears running down her face. "I'm here, John….let it go now…everyone's safe…."

Slowly, John lowered the hammer, the attack-filled tension leaving his body, and his eyes losing the manic glow. He dropped the hammer completely, leaning against Rose, curling his arms around her.

"…'m sorry," he murmured into her shoulder. Rose smiled, petting his head.

"I know," she said. "It's okay. You're okay. Everyone's okay."

John just sniffled, crying into her shoulder as Terezi hurried over to everyone else.

"Smells like Gamzee's body fridge," she commented, looking everyone over, pausing at Dave. "…I KNEW it." She grinned, poking at his bloody cheek and sucking on her finger. "FUCKING KNEW IT!"

Dave growled, swiping at her, but she leaned out of his reach, taking off her jacket and dropping it over his head. "Fine, fine, don't want everyone else to see it, I get it. Touchy."

Vriska stared at John's hammer, a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. "…that hammer is made from the same material as my Fluorite Octet," she muttered. "…that shit's so rare it's LEGENDARY…" She itched to take a look at it, but Rose gestured downward, making it vanish.

Rose looked around, noticing that though the crowd had barricaded themselves away as soon as Clovis brought out his mace, they were still staring and judging, and she had a strong feeling everyone was about to be slapped with an eviction notice. "…Let's go," she said. "Anyone who can walk, help someone who cant."

Vriska helped Karkat up while Terezi helped Dave, who scooted away and more toward Jade, who was trying to pull herself together. "…Hellova surprise there," Vriska said, heading on, frowning when she saw Gamzee looking around at the carnage. "Hey, Makara, stop pailing your pants over dead bodies and let's get moving!" She huffed, looking at John. "…Still, who knew Egbert had such a NAUGHTY streak. I'll have to try to get a piece of that."

"Not if I motherfuckin' get it first," Gamzee replied, muttering so softly Vriska almost didn't catch it. She shot a look at him, grimacing when she saw he practically had hearts in his eyes.

"…gonna kill you both," Dave growled before blacking out in Jade's hold.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The walk to Rose's hive was somber and silent, broken only by sniffling from John and the occasionally-whimpered 'sorry'. Karkat personally thought he and Dave had more of a reason to cry, but he wisely kept his mouth shut, hissing when he was eased into one of Rose's foul-smelling medical recuperacoons.

He could at least breathe better with the sharp fumes clearing his airways, and resigned himself to quiet as he watched Rose carefully take care of Dave's injured face, having shaken him into consciousness to check his cognitive functions.

"He almost bashed your nose right in," she commented, dabbing his face clean of the dirt and grit. Dave kept his jaw tight and hands clenched into the chair, determined not to make any noise. "This will hurt." Without giving any further warning, she snapped his nose back into place, leaning back when Dave let out a high-pitched yelp, bright blood gushing from his realigned nose.

Karkat found himself growling at the sight, forcing himself to turn away before he went through with his intense desire to dive out of the recuperacoon and sink his claws into Rose's eye sockets. _'He's not my Dave, he's not my Dave,'_ he kept forcing himself to think. _'He just…has my blood…MY blood…'_

Rose gingerly finished cleaning his face and applied some medicine to it. "I know you hate it Dave, but you'll need to wait for your nose to heal before putting any shades on," she said. Dave's jaw tightened, but he nodded, avoiding looking at anyone.

Vriska sighed dramatically. "Look, Dave, we're not gonna get up in your waste chute about it. In case you haven't noticed, Karkles over there has the same mutation, and we're not breaking his bulge over it."

"Your reassurance means SHIT to me, Cerulean!" Dave snapped, baring his fangs, his pupils almost slit in attack mode. Rose held his shoulders, keeping him seated.

"Dave, calm down!" she said firmly. "It's over. Even Clovis wont bother you anymore. John's seen to that." She winced when John let out a loud wail and buried his face in his knees. "John, you KNOW I didn't mean it like that…!" John only cried harder. Rose sighed, letting go of Dave to walk over to John and pull him up.

"Come on, John, let's get you to bed," she said quietly. John shook his head, pushing at her. "John, please…"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" he shouted, pushing past her and running out of the room, a door to another block slamming shut a moment later. Rose sighed, sitting down, looking worn and worried.

"…So…what WAS that?" Terezi said, breaking the awkward silence. Rose rubbed her face, sighing again.

"….I wasn't entirely truthful when I said John was a purely mild-mannered Indigo," she said, folding her hands in her lap. "He…for the most part IS a really friendly, nice person. He's truly happy and adventurous and spirited." She paused, looking down at her hands.

"….It was all my fault," she said quietly, tearing up. "I was just beginning my initiation into the Grimdarks, and was scared to go it alone. John offered to be my 'anchor' to what I would be seeing, and like an idiot, I said yes."

She looked up, brushing her bangs from her forehead, showing what looked like a brand seared into her skin. "Those who go through the initiation pass into another dimension where they find their god as a patron. Your conviction must be absolute, or you could lose yourself forever in there…and bad things happen to the body you leave behind." She leaned back.

"I was so stupid to bring John into it…he promised he would be there to talk me through it and keep me strong. So I went. And I panicked when I saw what was on the other side." She rubbed her arms, tearing up. "I panicked so hard, my body began to react. John…he tried to wake me up. To bring me back. He looked into my eyes, and…" She swallowed hard.

"…Something looked back at him. Something that drew him in with me and tried to take control." Her claws dug into her arms. "Not all the gods are benevolent. Some are downright EVIL and only wish for bloodshed and destruction. One such as that took hold of John and tried to latch on. The screaming…oh gods, that screaming…it was tearing John's soul apart…"

"Rose, stop…" Jade whimpered, her hands over her ears.

"My conviction to be powerful vanished, and my conviction to just HELP JOHN was all I had left. My patron chose me, and helped me take John's soul back and banish that HORRIBLE creature from him. But the damage was done." She bit her lip hard, tears dripping down her face.

"…John doesn't remember what happened, but I do. Even though I closed John off from that dimension for good, something fundamentally changed in him…something that surfaces whenever he's angered or afraid…and only I can bring him out of it." She looked at her hands. "I have more power than even most Elder Grimdarks, but I would give it all back if I could change what happened. John didn't deserve that, none of it."

Karkat leaned back in the recuperacoon, letting out a shuddery sigh. "…so…all that power John had was Grimdark?" he asked. Rose shook her head.

"No," she replied. "He refuses to believe it, but John is incredibly strong in his own right. I can sense Grimdark energy, and the only thing that changes about him is his mind. But he's so convinced that his brutal strength comes from his manic episodes, he refuses to even use his hammer to defend himself when he's NOT changed."

"Hey, speaking of that hammer," Vriska said, ignoring Dave's fiery glower. "…it's Fluorsparkind, isn't it? She leaned forward, serious. "That shit's super rare, I'm amazed there's enough to MAKE a hammer that big."

"It is," Rose replied. "I have no idea where he got it from, and he refuses to tell me. Or he doesn't know, and just keeps a hold on it…just in case." She buried her face in her hands, letting out a shaky sigh. "….you were all lucky. This was a milder episode, and at least I was here to bring him out of it."

"…what happens if you DON'T?" Terezi asked. "Does he…STAY like that, or…?"

"…No. Eventually, when there's no more threat, he'll go back to normal. But if I'm not there to help him, he just…goes catatonic…absolutely horrified at what he did. Like last time." She didn't elaborate. "…Sometimes I have to block parts of his memory, it gets so bad. The trouble is, it's happening more frequently, with less severe triggers for it. And considering he didn't have a scratch on him, I'm going to assume I'm correct when I say he was triggered just by watching you all get hurt."

"Assumption correct," Jade said, still hugging her knees. "…he's never been triggered before where he wasn't harmed in some way, not even when he had to save Dave from being beaten up eight perigrees ago."

Dave, who had remained silent for that time, spoke up. "Yeah, well, he's never had so many people he liked being threatened before," he said. "But you're right. His episodes are just going to get worse until they just happen for no reason at all." He leaned back in the chair, a mirthless smile on his face. "Wonder if he'll even care who his friends are by that point."

Silence. It seemed most everyone knew the answer to that question.

Vriska sighed, breaking the silence. "So. You said something about that orb," she said, turning to Rose. Rose nodded.

"…I'll go get it," she replied, heading to her respiteblock, passing by the hall John's block was in and frowning when she saw Gamzee creeping around the door.

She just hoped that medication would be delivered quickly. Keeping that troll's more Alternian instincts in line was already a hassle as it was.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Rose fetched the orb and shooed Gamzee back into the healing room with everyone else. She sat down, holding the polished and gleaming artifact up. "I spent all of last day looking through this and finding out just what it was. Come to find, it's not just some decorative piece…but rather, an artifact that the Elder Grimdarks used long ago to do their scrying when their own bodies became too frail to be proper channels."

She ran her hand over it, and the orb seemed to ripple with darkness. "Considering John said it was covered with dust when he found it, explorers and the such might have simply thought it was a rock and passed it up. But he knew it was something else. With this, and a good bit of time scrying and focusing, I could use it to contact the gods and see if there's a way to transcend existences to send you guys home."

Vriska blinked. "Wow," she said. "Pretty impressive." She gave Gamzee a somewhat haughty expression. "Pity some OTHER religions aren't as useful with this sort of thing."

"Vriska, shut the fuck up!" Karkat snapped, warily eying Gamzee, whose eyes began to go orange.

"On the contrary, Vriska," Rose said, making everyone—including Gamzee—turn to her in surprise. "I'm rather fascinated with the Subjugglator conception, as well as the Mirthful Messiahs. In fact, I haven't ruled out the idea at all that the Messiahs could simply be two of the gods…in this universe, anyway. And from observing Gamzee myself, I believe that with some training and proper management of his own abilities, he could make a Grimdark Acolyte and in fact help me use this thing to send you all home."

Gamzee blinked, then smirked at Vriska, giving her the finger. "Motherfuckin' sit and swivel, spiderbitch," he said. Across the room, Dave gave himself another nosebleed from the massive snort he made. "Then lick it clean." This time, Dave went for a towel.

* * *

The sun was coming up, and everyone was grateful to go to bed. Karkat was less happy that he had to stay in the recuperacoon for the day, but considering it was dulling the ache in his chest, he wasn't complaining. He was about to close his eyes when the door opened and Dave slipped in carrying a cushion and a blanket. "…the hell you doing here?" he asked, keeping his tone conversational.

Dave grunted in reply, shutting the door before making a small bed on the cot in the corner. "…Rose asked me to stay in the block and make sure you didn't die in your sleep," he replied, making himself comfortable. "She's too busy working out that orb bullshit to grubsit you today." He reclined back on the cot, putting a cloth over his eyes in place of his shades.

Karkat chewed his lip, having gone through a thousand ways to bring up their shared blood color, but was now coming up with a blank.

It was bad enough he was constantly reminded of his own Dave…except when this Dave opened his mouth and suddenly Karkat was feeling almost Caliginous. It just wasn't until hours ago that he figured out why.

A loudmouthed asshole who would rather badmouth someone away before he could get hurt, and kept up a fake wall of bravado to hide the fact that he was a fucking coward…this Dave was almost exactly like himself.

God, what a fucking waste.

"…You're a real fucking asshole, you know that?"

Karkat's eyes snapped open, looking over in Dave's direction, seeing that the other candy-red hadn't even moved to speak. "…the fuck do you mean by that?" he asked, most confused than offended.

Dave's hands clenched into his blanket. "Just gonna lie there and pretend you didn't see my blood," he replied, sounding more like he was talking to himself than to Karkat. "I fucking SAW you, you fuckass. I saw the way you got when you saw my blood. You got a broken fucking sternum going after Clovis, you idiot." His hands began shaking slightly. "…Now you're just gonna sit there like nothing happened—"

"Oh shut the fuck up, Strider!" Karkat snapped, wincing as he sat up, glowering over at him. "You cant even…..I…..FUCK!" He buried his face in his hands, gnashing his teeth. "YOU'RE NOT HIM! YOU'RE NOT MY DAVE!" FUCK, now he was fucking CRYING. "YOU JUST HAD TO BE MY FUCKING BLOOD COLOR, DIDN'T YOU!? THIS GODDAMN UNIVERSE HAD TO FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO FUCKING TORTURE ME! FUCK! _FUCK!_ "

He sobbed harder, not able to control his emotions anymore. Whether it was from his lack of sleep, the pain he was in, the bullshit he had been putting up with, or a combination of all three, it didn't even seem to matter as it all came pouring out. He missed Dave. He wondered if he was even ALIVE. He hated the conflicting, vacillating emotions that were making his think pan and blood pusher hurt.

Arms curled around his shoulders and a hand began papping at his head, the familiar motion calming him down against his better judgement. Almost like a miracle, he was back with Dave, being held and shooshpapped after watching a particularly emotionally-draining scene from one of his romcoms (something no one else BUT Dave had witnessed). Any minute now, he was going to suggest a bromance flick to lighten the mood…

Reality came down heavy like a thick fog when Dave began making soothing purring sounds, something his Dave was never capable of making. The worst part was, it was working. He let out a shaky sigh, letting his body unclench, leaning against Dave quietly. He could pretend for a while longer. After all this fuckery, he thought he was OWED some comfort.

"…I know I'm not your fucking moirail," Dave said quietly, petting Karkat's head, "but god fucking DAMN it if I know what it's like to see your Pale crush and not be able to have 'em. It's fucking torture." He sighed, hugging Karkat tighter. "I figured you'd…understand."

Karkat did. He understood TOO fucking well. He settled down, dropping off to sleep, feeling better than he had in what felt like weeks.

* * *

He woke up some hours later before the sun set, finding he was out of the recuperacoon and instead on Dave's cot. He was confused for a moment before recalling Rose saying too much time in that slime could rot his insides, deftly reaching up to touch his chest. There was only a dull ache of a bruise left, something he was sure would be healed by next sunrise.

Karkat looked around, frowning when he spotted Dave lying on the floor next to the cot, the cloth he put around his eyes having slipped away. Karkat noticed for the first time that Dave's eyes had scars around the edges, like someone had attempted to claw them out.

His gut clenched slightly, wondering just how deep Dave's hatred of his blood color ran, having the suspicion that Dave might have made those scars himself seeing his blood color show up in his eyes. Karkat himself dreaded that day that would happen. It was a stupid fear, considering everyone who mattered already knew what his blood color was, but it was a deep-seated and real fear…like somehow SEEING it all the time would change how they treated him.

Maybe he'd take to wearing shades like Dave.

He laid back down, rubbing his own eyes, wondering if his mutation would make them change color sooner than anyone else. It certainly seemed to have done so for Dave. John too, come to find, but that was a whole other can of worms. He stared up at the ceiling, mulling over last night.

He told himself it was just a one-time replacement moment, but it still didn't feel like it. He could feel it in his blood pusher, the Pale feelings for the troll on the floor, and it pained him. This was WAY too hair-thin of a line in determining if it was Pale infidelity. It WAS Dave, but it WASN'T Dave. The attitude may be different, but the SOUL was the same. He let out a muffled groan. None of his romcoms or books ever touched on THIS subject, FUCK no.

Karkat sighed, sitting up and easing himself off the cot, pausing before picking up the blanket and laying it over Dave. _'What a gigantic clusterfuck,'_ he thought to himself, slipping quietly from the room, making his way to Rose's nutritionblock for some coffee. _'Just a giant fucking pile of clusterfucking shit.'_


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Rose sighed as she began the process of meditation again. For the eleventh time today. Or it could have been the fifteenth. She sort of lost count by this point. All she knew was, it was getting harder to maintain focus with all the interruptions.

" _Close your eyes._

 _Find your center._

 _The darkness before you holds your allies._

 _The darkness holds truth._

 _Reach out and—"_

Savage growling snapped her out of the meditation walk-through, biting back a growl of her own as she glowered at who was SUPPOSED to be her pupil for this MOST BASIC OF GRIMDARK PRACTICES.

Gamzee, it seemed, could apparently not handle his own mind for even small amounts of time without his Highblood psychosis acting up. It was getting frustrating, but she managed to keep her calm by reminding herself that it had to be just that much worse for HIM with it being HIS mind.

"Okay," she sighed, reaching over and touching his head, using the same subduing power she often used on John to settle his mind back to a neutral default. She could never suppress it any lower than that, or this would never work. Almost immediately, Gamzee stopped snarling and relaxed, but wasn't by any means completely mentally calm. "We should take a break."

Gamzee grunted in reply, leaning back, looking just as tired as she felt. Rose stood up and walked over to a table to fix herself some tea. Something preferably stimulating. As she prepared it up, she began mulling over exactly what was going wrong.

Granted, she was working with one of the most chaotic mind she had ever come across. Just from a once-over, it seemed completely split down in two with a morally-neutral center. And by morally-neutral, she based that on his own personal code of religious conduct.

On one side of his mind, it was light and benevolent, looking fondly at anyone who gave him a kind word or offered a soft hand. There was a fierce fire of loyalty to that fondness, something that brought out a protective and almost possessive instinct, as though to coddle and shooshpap anyone who sparked that side of his mind. It honestly reminded her of the presence of her own patron god; something that would protect and defend, but still be deadly in doing so.

And then there was the other side of his mind, something dark and malevolent, full of screams and visions of multicolored blood raining from a black sky. It was something heavy and addictive, liberating a Highblooded mind into obeying whatever the screams commanded. There was only the desire for death and silence, and the desperation to make it happen. This side selected enemies indiscriminately and slaughtered without mercy with no input from the other side of its lighter counterpart.

What Rose was more focused on was the center, the place where she felt Gamzee could utilize the destructive power of the malevolent side while still maintaining the sanity and focus of the benevolent side. Unfortunately, it was teetering dangerously between the two depending on his level of inebriation and sobriety. The drugs she gave him a few days ago was wearing off now, and the more they focused on poking on both sides of his mind, the tighter the malevolent side clutched at trying to maintain control.

Rose was no stranger to this struggle of power. As a Purple blood herself, she was no exception to the Highblood psychosis. The difference was, she had been trained to keep perfect mental neutrality since she was a young pupa. All Gamzee had was drug-induced benevolence with the malevolence ready and waiting to pounce the moment the drug was gone, the balance almost irreparably skewed.

She had been trying to attempt keeping in the neutral zone naturally with meditation, but now she saw that it wasn't going to be working like that. She stood up and walked over to a worktable and rummaged around in a drawer, taking out a small bottle. A small handful of pills rattled around inside, and she hoped it would be enough.

"I didn't want to resort to this," she said, "but it seems it's only worth the try, just to get our foot in the door." She shook out two pills, handing them to him. He stared at them dubiously, his eyes narrowing. "They're not like that sopor slime," she elaborated, sitting down in front of him again. "Instead of suppressing your psychosis, it dulls it. The urges are still there, but your self-control is heightened."

Gamzee stared at the pills for a while longer before knocking them back and swallowing them, making Rose sigh with relief. At least she didn't have to coax him to take it. Perhaps he was as serious about this as she was.

Rose waited a few minutes, sipping her tea and watching him carefully. The slight facial tics she noticed he developed when left quiet for too long began to lessen, a spark of lucidity coming into his eyes, and a look of almost dazzled confusion coming across his face. She absently wondered if Gamzee had ever been in a neutral state of mind EVER. "…well?" she said softly. "You alright?"

Gamzee blinked hard, as though if he did so he'd wake up from a dream. But there was no dream to wake up from. The screams from the corners of his mind were quelled until they were just whispers easy to ignore. The holy visions of blood no longer stained the peripheral of his vision. His thoughts began to form coherent words and observations. Instead of being simultaneously hyper-aware and hyper-dulled, he could hear, smell, feel, and see normally. He hadn't felt this way since he was a young pupa, before either his psychosis or the sopor slime had touched his think pan.

"It's…weird," he finally said, flexing his hands, for once not feeling the urge to use them for a murderous or recreational-drug purpose. "It's…..quiet." Yes, that was a good word for it right now. "But…not TOO quiet."

Rose nodded, getting what he was saying. "It's dulling the psychosis, but not drugging it up," she replied. "This is what I was trying to accomplish earlier…this is what your neutral mind is supposed to be like. With practice, you probably wont even need the medication to be this way all the time."

Gamzee nodded, only half-listening, too interested in the weirdness going on in his brain at the moment. He wasn't aware he had zoned out until Rose flicked his forehead. "Hey—"

"We need to try it again," she said, sitting back again, waiting for Gamzee to do the same before closing her eyes.

" _Close your eyes._

 _Find your center._

 _The darkness before you holds your allies._

 _The darkness holds truth._

 _Reach out and grasp the truth…"_

For the first time, Gamzee wasn't bombarded by the depraved images that always came out when he was still for more than a minute. But there WAS darkness. It wasn't the usual shit that would bombard his mind, but rather something dense and ALIVE, just beyond where he could reach.

 _'The darkness before you holds your allies'_. WHAT allies? His Messiahs, like Rose said? Could they exist in this universe as well? The Mirthful Messiahs WERE his allies. His truth. With him. Within him.

He reached out, just as he was instructed to do, with both hands.

"Hey—!"

Gamzee's eyes snapped open, seeing that he had quite literally reached out and snapped Rose out of her own trance. Rose was rubbing her nose, huffing.

"…Okay, I think that's about enough for today," she said, leaning back. "But at least we made some progress. You were focused, that was good. I'll have to get some more of that medication for you ASAP, because it seems to be working."

Gamzee shrugged, leaning back too, tired out of his skull and just wanting to sleep. This Grimdark shit was taxing on his think pan, that much was for sure. He just closed his eyes and didn't even care about moving as he dropped off to sleep right there on the floor.

Rose was tidying up, not noticing Gamzee was asleep until he was snoring. She was used to staying awake for days at a time, due to her meditations. In any case, it seemed Gamzee was due for a real sleep.

She plucked up a sheet and draped it over him quietly, tip-toeing out of the block, taking the orb with her. Medication or not, she wasn't going to underestimate his incessant need to touch everything he found of interest. She put the orb into her syllabus and headed into the nutritionblock, frowning when she saw John standing at the counter, his shaking hands around a cup of coffee.

The Indigo looked like he hadn't slept at all, and Rose could almost kick herself. Of course he hadn't. He never slept well after one of his episodes. She walked over, quietly hugging him. "It's okay, John," she said softly.

John shakily took another sip from the cup. "…It's not," he replied softly. "You know it's not, Rose. I'm not a Grimdark, but…I'm not an idiot either. Nothing about what happens when I get like that is 'okay'!" He put the cup down, rubbing his face.

"…It's getting worse, Rose. I didn't want to say anything, but…I'm…hearing things now…"

Rose looked up, looking John in the eye. "John, why the hell would you keep something like that from me?!" she demanded. John's eyes slid to the side, shamefaced. "John, look at me." He didn't. "John!"

"They're getting louder, Rose!" John said, shaking. "Not just when I'm angry or scared, but just when I'm walking down the road, or going exploring, or trying to sleep…!" He rubbed his face again with shaking hands. "…Especially when I'm trying to sleep…the medication doesn't do anything—"

"Of course it doesn't, it's not Highblood psychosis that's doing this to you!" Rose said, taking John's hands and squeezing them. "John, I'm your moirail. This is what I'm HERE for. The first time you FELT something was off, you should have told me!"

"I know!" John said, biting his lip. "…I know. I'm sorry. I thought…" He trailed off, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "…I'm tired," he finally said, his shoulders slumping. "…Can I trouble my moirail to give me a sleep without nightmares?"

Rose hugged him again, petting his back. "Of course you can," she replied. She quietly took his arm and lead him back upstairs to his respiteblock, passing her work room en route. She almost tripped when John stopped suddenly just within the borders of the doorframe, not budging. "…John?" she said softly, tugging on his arm. He again refused to budge. "…John, what is it—"

 _ **"KLBS'NGYURTH NYURB GLY'LG HYROOL JTHOTHAT!"**_

Rose's dark complexion went paler with realization. That was the very voice of the Grimdark god that had taken over John.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Karkat headed down the hall, spotting Rose and John. Good, maybe they already had coffee made and he didn't have to go poking around the cabinets himself. "Hey, you already have some—"

He was cut off when John opened his mouth and an UNGODLY voice came out that was simultaneously glass-shattering high and bone-rattlingly low and made his hair stand on end and his blood freeze in his veins. He was also pretty sure he just pissed himself too, not that he could be assed to care.

Before Rose or Karkat could react, John kicked the door right off the hinges and bolted into the room, grabbing Gamzee from the floor and slamming him into one of Rose's work tables, scattering the miscellaneous items she had on it. Gamzee jerked awake with a startled honk, kicking and clawing at John.

 **"NGYUTHL'BA! GAZLUNUKLU M'LOOATH NYOT CLETHLYRSH YESKREL'KA!"**

Gamzee froze, his claws embedded in John's shoulders as that voice screamed around in his think pan, but somewhere in the back of his head, he understood.

 _ **"SILENCE WORM! OPEN YOUR MIND TO ME, GAMZEE MAKARA!"**_

THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIT WAS THAT!?

Gamzee was spared having to think it over when Rose bolted into the room and grabbed John, throwing him off of Gamzee, a black aura enveloping her body, her eyes glowing a blazing white as she pinned John down and pressed her hand to his head.

 _"BEGONE FROM HIM!"_ she screamed, the black aura tangibly lashing out at John, who screamed right back, struggling under her hold before suddenly going slack. Rose kept her hand on his head for a few moments more before letting go, her aura simmering down before vanishing.

Karkat shakily peeked into the room, noting with relief that John was unconscious on the floor, but looking concerned at Gamzee sprawled back on one of the tables, looking like he had just seen death in the flesh.

He'd never seen that kind of fear on Gamzee's face before, EVER. It was highly disconcerting. No. It was freaking him clean the FUCK out. Gamzee Makara. Who strangled, bludgeoned, dismembered, and decapitated people without batting an eye, was SCARED.

Fuck. If his bladder wasn't voided already, it certain was NOW.

"…wh…what the fuck was that…?" he stammered. "I thought…you said…"

Rose leaned down, checking John over. "…I don't know," she replied, swallowing hard. "…that wasn't supposed to happen…he isn't a vessel…! I made SURE of it…!"

"Motherfucker wanted inside me," Gamzee said, his voice shaky and soft, another first for Karkat to witness. "…heard all shades of darkness in my head…said it wanted in my motherfuckin' think pan…"

Rose swallowed hard again, holding John to her tightly. "…I need to look into this," she said softly. "…Gamzee…would…you mind very much please leaving? You…you can sleep anywhere else…"

Gamzee sat up and slipped off the table, creeping for the door and giving a wide berth to John. It wasn't until he was out the door that Karkat could see Gamzee was SHAKING.

God DAMN it, if this wasn't a day for being the residential Paleslut…

He reached out and touched Gamzee's arm gently, biting his lip when the taller troll flinched. "…Hey," he said softly, "…you can use my block if you want. To sleep, that is…"

Gamzee kept his eyes to the floor, waiting a long moment before nodding. Karkat quietly led Gamzee to the block he picked out as his own, watching him ignore the recuperacoon and make a nest of blankets in the corner, curling up tightly.

He quietly shut the door, leaning against the wall, running a shaking hand through his hair. Something frightening enough to scare GAMZEE was certainly enough to rid the need for coffee, that much was for fucking sure. He made his way to Dave's respiteblock to bum a change of clothes, hoping Dave didn't question what happened to these.

* * *

Karkat was sitting in the dining block with a cup of tea from the bin Rose labeled 'for calming the fuck down', finding some mild humor in the labeling but having a feeling Dave had a hand in it. He made a huge pot of it, and was on his second cup, his nerves FINALLY calming down.

He was left to his thoughts until everyone else—minus Dave, Rose, John, and Gamzee—trickled in and made a beeline for the coffeepot.

Vriska yawned, stretching. "What the fuck was up with that commotion earlier?" she asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee. "Hope to GOD it wasn't Gamzee trying to fuck with John—"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Karkat snapped, making everyone else jump. The cup in his hand shattered from his grip on it, but he didn't care. He glowered at Vriska, baring his teeth. "DON'T. JUST…fucking DON'T!"

"Who pissed in your grubflakes?" Terezi said, staring at his general direction as Kanaya hurried over with a towel. Karkat snatched the towel from her, sopping up the tea from the table.

"Just…fucking don't say SHIT about John or Gamzee!" he growled, pushing the cup pieces to the side for Rose to fix later, his nerves back to being shot and raw. He rubbed his face, letting out a heavy sigh. "Please. Don't."

There was an awkward silence in the dining block for a few moments before Dave walked in, sans shades per Rose's request to let his face heal, not looking happy about it. He glanced around, noticing Karkat's distress, scowling and sitting down at the table next to him, the squaring of his shoulders and blazing red glare in his eyes giving a clear 'BACK THE FUCK OFF' to everyone else.

Kanaya quietly fetched a couple more teacups and poured out the tea, pushing one to Karkat, sipping the other herself. "…did something happen?" she asked quietly, once Terezi and Vriska were in the nutritionblock to scavange for food.

Karkat shakily sipped the tea before nodding. "…yeah," he replied quietly. "…But I think Rose should be the one to explain it." He noticed Dave's sharp look, sipping the tea again. "…because that shit is WAY out of my league."

"…is it Grimdarks?" Dave asked, his eyes narrowing. Karkat nodded, pursing his lips to make it clear that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Dave seemed to accept the fact and leaned back in his chair, only to sit up straight on the defensive when there was a scurrying past a window.

Karkat did the same, instinctively grabbing one of the decorative knives Rose kept on display at her table, clenching it in his fist tightly, only to heave a sigh of relief and annoyance when he saw that it was only Jade, who came sneaking in through the back door.

Jade immediately read the situation, looking abashed. "…sorry for worrying you," she said, unfurling a large cloth, showing the weapons they had left at her hive. "But I figured it was better than staying here unarmed, just in case."

Dave grinned, walking over and picking up the sword John brought him, snapping the blade out. "You're a doll, Jade," he said, twirling the blade before retracting it and putting it in his syllabus. "Yeah, fuck the establishment. I don't give a fuck if it's borderline illegal for me to carry around an unregistered weapon, John's not the only one who can take someone's head off!"

Kanaya sighed and went for the towel when Karkat shattered another teacup.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Tensions were a bit high for the rest of the night, and everyone was anxious to look for things to do without going stir-crazy. Dave reluctantly let Vriska and Terezi have a go at his gaming system he kept at Rose's hive for safekeeping—Karkat got the gist Dave's own hive was in a bad part of the town—and Kanaya holed up in the library. Jade situated herself in the upstairs alcove as sort of a watcher in case someone decided to come by with less than noble intentions.

Dave and Karkat sat in silence for most of the night, the presence of one another quite awkward, but neither seemed to want to break the tension first. Karkat glanced at the clock, wondering when it would be good to go poke his head into Rose's block and check up on things. He saw that it was close to daybreak, and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"I need a drink," he mumbled, mostly to himself, but realized it was both stupid and rude to just blurt it out in front of Dave. "…you want something?"

Dave shrugged a little, having kept his eyes averted the whole time. Karkat took that as a yes and slipped into the nutritionblock to get a few drinks, coming back and handing Dave one, sipping the other.

"…What was he like?"

Karkat nearly choked on the drink when Dave spoke up suddenly, but managed to keep it down. He lowered his cup. "...Who was what like?" he asked, frowning.

"…Your Dave."

On the list of shit Karkat didn't think he'd be talking about, this was right up there in the top three, next to his blood color and his Quadrant crushes. He absently wondered if Dave was just exacerbating this borderline-Caliginous tango they'd been doing since the literal moment they met, but then he realized that Dave was actually looking him in the eye.

Jeeze, those eyes were really intimidating looking at head-on, Karkat noticed. It was something he and his Dave shared, actually. That, and the reluctance to have them be seen. He recalled his Dave explaining that his eye color was a mutation in and of itself, and something he personally hated.

Considering the rainbow of shades the trolls' eyes would take, Karkat was confused that eye color would be an issue on Earth. Apparently, blue, green, and brown were the standard fare for humans, and red was WAY off the scale of normalcy. Especially that shade of red. It was bright and vibrant, not something you could deftly ignore with a passing glance.

And to think one day, Karkat would have those eyes himself, and any pretense of hoofbeastshit he was able to ever put up would come crashing down in a debunking of epic proportions.

Karkat realized he'd been staring as his thoughts buzzed around, and quickly averted his eyes, a hint of red appearing on his cheeks. Shit, what was the question again?

Oh, right.

He procrastinated with a long sip of his drink, chewing his lip. "…He's a huge fucking dork," he finally said, figuring he'd go for honesty while he was at it. "He puts up this huge BS cool kid façade that goes to complete SHIT once you get him on the pile, and then he cries like a fucking wiggler when things get too fucking deep." He stared at his reflection in the cup, steeling his goddamn tear ducts.

"He mixes shitty music, puts on shitty impromptu rap sessions, draws fucking shitty human genitalia on my shit, has practice strifes with his shitty swords…!" FUCK, his voice did NOT just fucking crack! "…doesn't finish watching his shitty movies, and just falls right the fuck to sleep, and…" FUCK FUCK _FUCK_. "…and he's…JUST THE BEST FUCKING MOIRAIL, OKAY!?"

Karkat threw his cup across the room, not even taking satisfaction in watching it shatter, burying his face in his hands, almost biting through his lip in the effort it took to not completely loose his shit. That effort was wasted when he felt Dave curl an arm around his shoulders, letting out a choked sob.

"It's…..not FAIR!" he bit out, his shoulders shaking, not elaborating on what the unfairness was. What was REALLY unfair was that a literal version of his moirail was sitting next to him and making him have sort-of-is-but-not-really infidelity feelings which were only made WORSE considering this version was a TROLL and was probably the only other of his kind with his blood color in the entire fucking UNIVERSE, and the sense of comradery was so thick his goddamn sickle couldn't cut through it.

This was worse than just having Pale FEELINGS. This was something that he could literally feel in his BLOOD. And it was with a shock of horror that Karkat realized what he truly thought was unfair.

He though it was unfair that his Dave had to be human, and not THIS Dave.

"It doesn't HAVE to be fair."

Karkat stiffened, looking up, his vision red and hazy from the tears in his eyes, but not so hazy that he couldn't make out that intense red stare Dave was giving him. Dave's hand squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.

"Like I said yesterday. I'm not your moirail. I wont even pretend to be, because we both know how fucked up that would be. I don't know what the fuck I am to you except some asshole who can nudge that stick up your ass a little further in."

The hand on Karkat's shoulder slipped back to cup the back of his head, pulling him in so his forehead touched Dave's.

"…But I'll be what I am to John, Jade, and Rose. I'll just BE there. As just a friend. That last-minute pitchmate for your bad days to argue and strife with. Fuck, if you need a goddamn pail-mate, I don't care. So don't worry about infidelity here. I'm not trying to replace him…just filling any other void you have."

Karkat's face was streaked with transparent red, and for once not caring that the color was being seen. It was liberating, actually, knowing for a FACT that the person who was seeing didn't have a single judgement about it. He reached up and wiped his face dry with his sleeve, leaning back. It was…quite the proposal, to be honest. And he could tell it was heartfelt, too.

Naturally, he had to coat how touched he was with wiseassery. "You're a real Quadslut, aren't you?" he said, the corners of his mouth twitching upward. He had a moment of worry when Dave's face remained in patented poker position.

"…Oh yeah," Dave deadpanned back. "Been thinking about making it into a career. I'm motherfucking hot as shit, I'll blow everyone right the fuck outta the water. Get the Grand Highblood himself to suck my bulge, I'm so hot."

There was a moment of silence before they both burst out laughing, both their faces bright red.

* * *

Vriska and Terezi passed the sitting room and heard the commotion, poking their heads inside to see Karkat laughing so hard he had fallen off the couch and Dave damn near close to choking on his own tears from trying to stop laughing.

Terezi almost felt like they had been somehow taken back home, hearing Karkat being so happy and carefree with his rare laughter. She smiled, getting flashes of good vibes from this budding…whatever it was between Karkat and this Dave. She grabbed Vriska's arm and pulled her away before Vriska would do something to spoil the moment.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Rose was thankful for the few hours of sleep she managed to get, for both the rest it gave her physical mind and body, and for the chance to go into her mind bubble.

Going in during meditation was one thing, but during sleep, it was both easier, but at the price of being more vulnerable to both inside and outside influences. But she needed to consult her patron about what had happened.

Going into the realm of the Grimdarks was an experience one never quite grew out of. No matter how long one had been doing this, they never really felt completely comfortable doing this. Even Rose's elderly teacher expressed the importance of never getting comfortable in that place, lest you lose yourself forever.

The trick was to pay no heed to anything else around you, and focus solely on your patron, something Rose was adept at. She felt truly blessed to have been chosen by such a benevolent and kind patron who always made her feel welcome and safe. The only downside she could even think of was that she didn't know her patron's name.

All of the gods had names, even if not all the gods were known to GIVE them. Rose did wish her patron would give her a name, but her patron simply said she would give it 'when the time was right'. It was something that often confused and sometimes exasperated Rose, but the gods knew things she did not. If there was a reason to withhold the name, then Rose would respect it.

Now she navigated the mind-space into this dimension, coming up to her patron, a monstrosity of a creature, larger than a city, composed of tentacles and fanged beaks, but somehow conveying none of the terror that the form would suggest. Instead, Rose only felt love and protection from her patron. And yes, often a vindictive fury, should the situation call for it, which wasn't that often.

Rose smiled when she came up to her patron, cuddling a smaller tentacle that was offered as a greeting. She pressed her cheek against the appendage, sighing softly. "…I don't know what to do," she confessed. "I thought we blocked John off together those sweeps ago…but today…"

The response was low and vibrating around her, but lighthearted and soft in her mind.

 _ **"My dearest Rose, there is only so much one god can do in regards to another. John was claimed by another, and there is little you, or even I, can do to completely block it off."**_

Rose bit her lip, shaking. "…But John isn't a Grimdark," she protested. "I was stupid to bring him into this…"

 _ **"No, but he had the capabilities to be one,"**_ her patron replied. _**"Having that god claim him should have killed him. But John survived long enough for you to help. That doesn't mean he remains unclaimed. Whether we like it or not, John was chosen. And when a Grimdark is chosen, they remain chosen until the god is the one to cut the bond."**_

"…So it IS getting worse," Rose said, looking stricken. "…John said he was starting to hear things…he's getting nightmares…and his psychosis is being triggered more easily."

 _ **"I had hoped HE would have lost interest,"**_ her patron said, sounding more bitter than Rose ever recalled. 'He'? _**"But I was wrong. The arrival of those trolls from another existence is something he wants a part of."**_

Rose chewed her lip harder when her patron went silent for a few long moments. "…Do you think they…'he'…wants to escape to this other existence…?" she asked.

Her patron gave an affirmative indication. _**"That is exactly what I think,"**_ they replied. _**"It is too late to properly train John in the ways of the Grimdark…although I believe he knows a few tricks by instinct, given his natural capabilities, but that only makes him all the more dangerous."**_

Rose felt a shudder run through her. It was an incredible rarity, but a handful of Grimdarks in the past had been chosen by malevolent gods, and the single-handed destruction was absolutely infamous. It was why Grimdarks were carefully monitored during initiation, and signs of being taken over by a pernicious god were met with a mercy culling.

Not for the first time, Rose felt absolute RAGE at herself for thinking she could get through her initiation with only her best friend as an onlooker. Even more so of not confessing to the Elders that something had happened to John, fibbing and telling them that she had gone through it herself. If she had just been honest, maybe they could have done something to properly block John from that THING that was still plaguing him to this day.

"…This is all my fault," she said, tearing up. "…I never wanted something like this to happen…" She hugged the appendage, feeling another gently pap her head.

 _ **"But it has,"**_ the god replied matter-of-factly. _**"Things like this never happen without reason. And while this universe may not have the game of which they come from, forces come into play that may have similar possibilities and outcomes."**_

Another long lapse of silence.

 _ **"Keep up the training with your acolyte. I believe that he will be of great importance in this quest of yours. After all, you are not incorrect in your assumptions that his beliefs are similar to your own. Or that his gods differ from yours."**_

Rose nodded, wiping her face dry. "Okay," she said. "…I still don't understand everything that's going on, but I trust you." She hugged the tentacle, smiling.

 _ **"Keep strong, my Rose. This game will require it of you."**_

* * *

Rose blinked awake, feeling recharged and refreshed as she always did after spending time with her patron, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

The hive was still standing, so that was a good sign.

She glanced over towards John, looking relieved when she saw that he was sleeping peacefully in the open-faced recuperacoon that was filled with a sedative slime rather than a medicinal one. He was even snoring softly. She smothered down a giggle, recalling how offended he got when she insinuated that he did something as lame as SNORE.

Slipping out of her own recuperacoon, she dried off and pulled on her dress, smoothing out her hair before setting the wake-up timer on John's recuperacoon for ten more minutes, heading off to find Gamzee. They had quite a bit more to talk about.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

John managed to wake up and sneak out of the hive without anyone noticing, retreating into the dense woods behind the hive and sitting down on the ground, his head resting on his knees. It was dead silent here, a welcome change to the ruckus going on in Rose's hive.

Not that he meant to listen in…sometimes he just managed to 'over-hear' things and it drove him crazy. He could hear Vriska and Terezi try to one-up each other in a game. He could hear Rose speaking softly to Gamzee. He could hear Dave and Karkat howling with laughter. It was just so LOUD, and so jovial, and he just felt so…terrible.

Rose hadn't erased his memory this time. He could REMEMBER taking a backseat to his own body as he broke down Rose's door, grabbed Gamzee up and demanded to be 'let in'. He was forced to see yet another innocent person being terrorized by this THING in his head. And he STILL didn't know what the hell it wanted with him!

He knew Rose tried to erase the memory of what happened so many sweeps ago from his mind, but he never had the heart to tell her that there was always a shadow of a memory there. Nightmares about darkness blacker than the blackest void, screams that were wrenched from the pit of his soul, the pain, the agony, the voice all around him that made him feel like he was being imploded and torn to shreds at the same time…it was something that left a stain on his memory, too deep to just wipe clean. He didn't know the details. He didn't WANT to know the details. But he DID want to know who this entity was, and why it wanted him.

John jumped when he heard someone step up next to him, settling down when he saw that it was just Jade. "…Jade…it's just you," he sighed, sounding relieved. Jade gave him a tight, sad smile, sitting down in front of him. "…I'm supposing they're wondering where I am."

Jade shook her head. "They don't know you're gone yet," she replied. "I was keeping a lookout, and saw you leave." She mirrored his sitting position, hugging her knees. "…I know you're scared, John. But you should know that NOBODY is blaming you for anything. It's not YOU that's doing these things."

"But it IS me!" John retorted. "It's MY body that's doing this! My hands that swing that hammer! MY claws that tear flesh! MY mouth that laughs and…" He shuddered hard, clenching his eyes shut. "…Just try telling those bystanders that it's 'not me' when they see me doing those things, Jade. And it's even worse than that." He rubbed his eyes, biting his lip. "…When I take a backseat to those times…I can FEEL the rush. FEEL the glee and pleasure whoever's inside me feels. Sometimes…it gets so bad that I don't know if it's me or IT that's enjoying it!"

He ran a hand through his hair, shuddering. "…why is this happening, Jade? What is going on?"

Jade reached over and hugged John tightly, petting his back like she did one of her ailing barkbeasts. "I don't know," she said softly. "But the time of pretending nothing's wrong is over. We have to deal with this. And I'll be there for you, you know that." She petted John's head, shushing him quietly when he began to cry.

"…I don't want to hurt anyone…" John whimpered into her shoulder. "I'm so fucking scared, Jade…I'm going to HURT someone…!"

"Then we'll be there to stop you," Jade said firmly. "And if we cant stop you, then I can tell you now that we wont blame you. NONE of us." She hugged him tighter. "We'll do this together, John, just like how we always do."

John remained silent, but gave his head the slightest nod, hugging her back. "…Promise me something, Jade," he said quietly.

Jade paused her petting, noting the resolution in his tone. "…what?" she asked softly. John's arms tightened around her, and she felt a hint of a tremble in his shoulders.

"…If I go insane and I don't come back…make sure I cant hurt you or anyone else." His claws dug into her skin to keep her from protesting. "PROMISE me, Jade. I cant trust Rose or Dave with a promise like this. They'll never go through with it, and you know it." He clenched his eyes shut. "…you were able to shoot one of your barkbeast pack-mates when those bastard Blues gave her a manic dosage…because you didn't want her to hurt anyone else. Please…I know it's a lot to ask, but I need you to promise me you'll protect MY pack now."

Jade's breath hitched, transparent olive tears falling down her face. "…I promise," she said, sniffling. "Gods damn you for making me, though."

"I'll take damnation for whatever I'll do," John said, hugging her tightly before sitting back. "…But I'll do my best to try to make sure you wont have to do this." He wiped her tears away, standing up with her. "…Don't tell Rose or Dave."

Jade nodded in understanding, pulling him out of the woods and back toward the hive.

* * *

Things seemed to have calmed down since John left. Terezi and Vriska had the game taken away before they broke the system so they were raiding the nutritionblock. Gamzee was sitting at the table with Rose, sipping one of her tea concoctions and looking like he'd like nothing more than to curl up on a horn pile and stay there until the end of times. Dave and Karkat finished their laughter fit and were just sitting in comfortable silence.

John walked into the diningblock, pausing and chewing his lip when he saw Gamzee, feeling incredibly guilty and uncomfortable. Rose noticed, getting up and walking over to him. "It's okay, John," she said quietly. "Really." She gave him a calming pap on the face to put some color back into his face, then took his hand and led him over to the table, sitting him down before sitting herself between him and Gamzee.

Gamzee was giving him a cautious and shrewd look from over the rim of his teacup, and John could see that unlike the other visitors, Gamzee's irises were almost purely his eye color, with more elliptical rather than circular pupils. The almost iridescent color was very similar to Rose's, giving John the impression that there was a lot more to this troll than he initially thought. Certainly must be, if Rose was taking an extra interest in him.

Huh. That last thought was certainly not one that sat well in his mind, if that tic above his eye were any indication. Where did that come from?

Jade's nose twitched, frowning when she smelled a shift in hormones from Gamzee and John, exchanging a look with Kanaya, who was passing through. Kanaya glanced at Rose, between John and Gamzee, and back to her again, lifting an eyebrow in silent questioning. Rose paused before shaking her head, looking almost sad before turning her attentions back to the two males on either side of her.

"…I think that right now, we need to have a serious conversation concerning our situation…as well as the changes that must come with it." She took a deep breath, letting it out, following her calming practices silently.

"From today until this matter is settled, I will be auspisticizing between you two."

Gamzee frowned, having not expected THAT to be the first round of conversation. John, on the other hand, jerked back in his seat, staring at Rose.

"…..what? N…no, Rose, we DON'T need an auspistice—"

"John." Rose reached over and took his hand squeezing tightly. "For this to work, you, me, and Gamzee will be working closely together…and my patron has told me that you will need to be closely monitored, and Gamzee too. But I cant keep the peace fairly if I'm your moirail. This is what is best, and what is FAIR."

John's hands clenched into the table, his jaw tightening. "There is NOTHING. FAIR. ABOUT THIS."

"John, calm down!"

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" John stood up, slamming his palms on the table, almost cracking it. "IF YOU AND YOUR STUPID FRIENDS HADNT COME HERE—"

"JOHN!"

"IT WASN'T MY MOTHERFUCKIN' FAULT, YOU FUCKING—"

"GAMZEE!" Rose stood, keeping her body between the two trolls who were glowering at each other with enough Caliginous ire for six trolls instead of two. "BOTH OF YOU, SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

By this point, the yelling had attracted the rest of the group, with Dave and Karkat shouldering their way to the front. "The fuck is going on?!" Karkat demanded, keeping a wary eye on the two Highbloods who were currently hissing at each other over Rose's head.

Kanaya chewed her lip, looking worried. "…Rose broke off her moiraillegience with John to become his and Gamzee's auspistice," she replied. "…John's not…taking it well."

Before Karkat could reply, Dave pushed past everyone and hurried up to John, his height blocking eye-contact for John, reaching up and taking John's face in his hands. "John, bro…listen to me," he said, his voice soft and losing any hard edge. "…This is a bullshit situation for everyone. And I know it's not fair. But you have to calm down before you say or do something you'll regret." His hands quietly papped at John's head. "It's okay, bro. Everything's going to be okay. Shoosh now."

The tension in John's body wilted, and the angry gleam in his eyes faded, sighing heavily and leaning his head on Dave's shoulder. Dave kept shooshing John for a few moments before quietly steering him out of the room with Jade in tow.

Gamzee's aggression simmered down once John was gone, and Rose made him sit back down and drink some more of her tea.

Kanaya sighed, looking relieved. "…that could have been bad," she said. She glanced at Karkat, her worry stirring up again when she saw the barely-contained, only half-platonic HATE in his eyes. "Karkat—"

Karkat shoved past her, stalking outside, summoning up his sickle to go cut some things, giving a clear indication that unless someone wanted their arms to be added to his cut-out pile, they'd best stay away.

* * *

Dave sat John down on the bed before gesturing Jade over and having her take his place. "…He needs a moirail right now, Jade," he said quietly. Jade frowned, but kept John in the quiet, subdued state Dave put him in.

"…Dave, why don't you—"

"JADE."

She kept silent, but her eyes narrowed. Dave kept shifting his eyes away, cursing for the thousandth time that he didn't have his shades, sitting down on a chair, rubbing his face.

"….Jade, I'm…not good for him right now," he said softly so he didn't stir John from the subdued state. "I cant…I mean…" His cheeks went red, and Jade's eyes widened.

"….oh," she said, her own cheeks turning olive. "…I'm sorry, I didn't think…I mean…"

"Yeah," Dave said, wringing his hands. "…It's fucked up and complicated, and I cant give John what he needs when I'm…" He grimaced. "…'Quadslutting all over the place right now."

"Dave, you're not a Quadslut," Jade admonished. "Just because you experience the Quadrants differently than most do doesn't mean anything. You're….just a natural at romance."

Dave let out a loud snort, rubbing his face. "Yeah, a natural at feeling it, but also a natural at royally fucking it up," he replied. He bit his lip, glancing out the window, watching Karkat destroy the trees that bordered Rose's hive property.

"…definitely better at fucking it up."

Jade sighed, shifting John so he was lying down on the bed, tucking him in. "…You deserve happiness too, Dave. You don't have to keep dishing it out to us and taking none for yourself." She hugged him tightly before turning back to John. "I can be his moirail, no problem. Always thought about it, to be honest. Call it a curiosity."

Dave nodded. "…Call it whatever you want, but just do what you can for him." He glanced at John. "Gods know he'll do everything he could for you."


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Dave went back downstairs and sat down at the table, ignoring the irritated look Gamzee was giving him. "Jade's agreed to a moiraillegience. She's taking care of him now," he said, helping himself to a cup of tea, knocking it back and not giving a shit about how hot it was.

Rose nodded quietly, her expression troubled and guilty. "…It had to be done, Dave," she said. "There has to be an equal footing in whatever it is we have to do."

"Nah, I get that," Dave said, getting another cup, sipping it slowly this time. "…First time I've seen John throwing a Highblood hissyfit, though. That was interesting."

"'Interesting' isn't the word I would use," Rose muttered. "But I would hardly put it on the Highblood spectrum." She sighed. "Anyone would have reacted the way he did. I just hate that I was the one that caused it—"

"Rose, clamp a lid on that shit," Dave said firmly, frowning. "You're going to be an auspistice. If you're still hung up about breaking off moiraillegience, you wont be able to do your fucking job properly." He gestured to Gamzee. "You've got two nutbags to deal with, and you cant be focused solely on one. It's not exactly fair to Chuckles here."

Gamzee growled. "Didn't like your motherfuckin' human self, and you're just WORSE," he replied, eyes narrowing. Dave shrugged.

"Ask if I give a fuck. And I'm doing you a fucking FAVOR, assclown." He leaned back, crossing his arms. "And since Rose cant babysit you ALL the fucking time, I'm going to make you an offer."

"Dave," Rose said, frowning. Dave ignored her.

"To keep your teeth off of John and to stop from triggering anything Grimdark, I'm offering my services as a kismesissal stand-in."

Gamzee stared, blinking slowly. "Wanna run that by me the motherfuck again?" he said.

Dave sighed, drumming his fingertips on the table. "….alright, I'm going to be honest here. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly…normal, by troll standards when it comes to romance. I have what's called a Romantic Proteus mutation. It means that I can literally go up to ANYONE and perfectly be the Quadrant they want to fill without knowing anything about them. And unless you really know me or I know you, you'll feel rapid-fire vacillation between Quadrants that usually ends up pretty confusing and frustrating."

He paused, chewing his lip. "If I actively WORK at it, and get around to getting a feel of a troll's intentions, I can keep the vacillation from happening, or keep it completely platonic and neutral at all times, like I do with my friends. But in order for you to focus on what Rose needs to teach you, you need an outlet for those Caliginous feelings you have for John. And I'm willing to be that guy."

Gamzee listened as Dave spoke, finally getting why he kept feeling neutral nothingness to sudden Caliginous urges whenever he was around. And as instinctively ODD the whole thing seemed, Dave was right about one thing. John's sudden Caliginous throw-down was going to be a distraction if he didn't have access to an outlet.

He almost shook his head. Damn, those pills were a HELLova cleanser for his think pan.

"…Alright then, motherfucker," he finally said. "You've got yourself a deal."

Dave smirked. "Great," he said. "Hope you're decent at strifing. You'll get the urge to do that a lot around me, and I'm VERY good at what I do." His voice had dropped to an almost seductive, challenging purr, putting Gamzee's teeth on edge in the worst way possible.

"Dave, stop being weird," Rose said, pulling a face. "You know your Proteus creeps people out."

"Queen of Grimdarks calling me weird. WOW. Pot, meet Kettle. We're both black as fuck with the Spade to match." He ducked when she threw a doily at his head, hurrying out laughing.

Rose huffed, a tinge of purple around her cheeks. "He can be such a dick with that power," she muttered, then turned to Gamzee. "Are you sure that's what you want?" she asked.

Gamzee nodded. "Yeah," he replied. "Motherfucker had a good point. Somethin' just don't feel right with Johnbro right now. Might be the motherfucker in his head, I dunno. But he makes my think pan go haywire whenever he's around, and it gets my motherfuckin' distraction on somethin' FIERCE."

Rose nodded. "Alright then. But ease up on the strifing." She glanced out the window. "…Karkat's already torn up my flower bushes, and I'd like to salvage at least SOME of my property."

* * *

Karkat finally finished taking most his anger out on whatever was poking out from the ground or the thick woods, sitting back on a rock and clenching his hands into his hair, growling softly.

Shit, he didn't even know WHAT he was so angry about. Dave had already made it known that he was Pale for someone he couldn't have, and John was obviously that someone. Not that he should be surprised. He shouldn't even be angry. Dave was just…a friend. That's all. Platonic and everything.

SHIT.

Karkat growled louder, his claws flexing into his scalp. There was NOTHING platonic about what he was feeling now.

He was fucking Pale for Dave.

And he was pretty sure he was also Caliginous for John at this point. Not just the toeing-the-line-getting-nostalgic-for-his-John feelings, but REAL Caliginous, for THIS John.

Fuck his life sideways. Life was now a fifteen-inch dildo fucking him without lube, RIGHT in the ass.

He heard someone approaching him, but didn't look up, keeping his eyes clenched shut, not wanting to talk to anyone.

"…Hey, Karbro."

….okay, scratch that. THIS might be distractingly bizarre enough to put the brakes on the Rom train. He opened his eyes and looked up, seeing Gamzee staring down at him, looking a mix of concerned with a hint of exasperated.

For the first time in a REALLY long time, Karkat took a good look at Gamzee. His former would-be-moirail was looking at him with the matured-color of vibrant purple that held all the spark of lucidity without the madness behind it, his expression neither dazed from being high, nor sharp from being sober. Instead, Karkat was seeing Gamzee SANE. For ONCE.

It was creeping him clean the fuck out.

"…Hi," he replied, feeling it would just draw out the awkwardness if he didn't answer. Gamzee took that as an invitation to sit next to the rock, legs stretched out and leaning back on his arms. THAT, at least, was a familiar gesture.

Still didn't help the awkward silence.

"…So, Davebro's gonna be my motherfuckin' kismesis for now."

Karkat stared at him with the oddest expression that Gamzee would even peg as 'creeping the motherfuck out'. The odd complexion of paled skin with a furious flush on the cheeks was a source of worry as well.

"…Well," Karkat bit out, his words sounding as sharp as his sickle. "Isn't that just… _nice._ "

Gamzee frowned, more than able to pick up Karkat's verbal cues by this point. "I aint takin' him away from you, Karbro," he said, getting another odd look from Karkat. "Kinda…strictly business-like. 'S apparently what he does."

"The absolute hot mess of fresh FUCK are you talking about?" he demanded, sounding close to having another fit. Gamzee stared at Karkat's twitching eye before reaching over and papping his face.

"Shoosh, motherfucker."

* * *

"…Well that rules out Karkat picking up where he left off with moiraillegience with Gamzee," Vriska said, sipping her coffee as she watched Karkat dive on Gamzee and start wailing on him with his fists. Terezi sighed next to her, and headed for the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go separate those two idiots, whack Karkat over the head with a blunt object, then try to fix this," Terezi replied, walking out of the room. Vriska stared after her.

"…Fix WHAT?"


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Terezi parted Gamzee and Karkat around the same time Rose noticed something was amiss, handing Gamzee off to Dave while she and Rose both held Karkat back. Dave pulled Gamzee into the hive and into a block that was away from the other group.

"Jeegus fucking Christ," Dave muttered, handing Gamzee a cloth to put up to the juggalo's bleeding nose. "You're supposed to be fighting ME, assclown, not him. The fuck even set that shit off, anyway?"

Gamzee growled, snatching the cloth and pressing it to his face. "None of your motherfuckin' business, blasphemer," he snarled, flicking the droplets of red blood off his claws. Dave glanced at the droplets, his jaw tightening slightly.

"…Look, what exactly is your damage with me?" he asked, crossing his arms. "It cant really be my attitude, since I'm this way with EVERYONE. Did you have some shit with that other Dave or whatever?"

Gamzee glowered off at the wall, growling into the cloth over his face, his hands flexing like he instinctively wanted to start rending flesh with them. Dave just sat there patiently. "…Bro, you can talk to me, you know. It's what I'm HERE for."

"…the motherfuck are you TALKIN' about?" Gamzee replied, staring. "Aint you supposed to be my motherfuckin' kismesis, talkin' about having a motherfuckin' feelings jam like a Pale motherfucker..."

Dave rolled his eyes. "Keep forgetting you guys aren't from here. Look. Here, a kismesis isn't just for having a rivalry of determinable violence with. I'm not just here for you to strife with and take a swipe at whenever you're pissed. I'm also here to listen to you rant and rave, and throw verbal abuse at, if it makes you feel better. I'm your outlet, bro, so plug your ass in and let's GO." He leaned back. "Lay it on me, bitch."

Gamzee scowled, wiping his face when he felt his nosebleed has run its course. "…heretical motherfucker kept spewin' the motherfuckin' blasphemy to th' Mirthful Messiahs," he finally hissed. "Said it was a motherfuckin' 'honest mistake' first time. Then kept that mutinous noise up. Told him his motherfuckin' blasphemy should be motherfuckin' STOWED RIGHT THE FUCK UP." He paused, clenching his hands tightly and taking a deep breath, letting it out.

"…Motherfucker didn't stop. Kept reciting the blasphemy with a motherfuckin' SMILE on his face, not giving a FUCK about what the motherfuck he was defiling." He paused to get a rein on his emotions, giving Dave a hateful glower. "Motherfucker shit on my faith, is what I motherfuckin' despise. Even when I told him to motherfuckin' stop."

To Gamzee's surprise, Dave looked almost repentant, like he couldn't believe what an absolute bulgeleak he was apparently capable of being.

"…yeah," Dave finally said, exhaling hard. "…that's plenty enough reason to hate someone." He ran a hand through his hair. "…I know it's pretty much shit coming from me, but I'm sorry for that." He glanced off in the direction of Rose's work room. "…I know what total fuckheads people can be about someone's faith. I've seen what cruel words have done to Rose for her being a Grimdark."

He paused, then muttered under his breath and pulled out a pair of shades from his pocket, putting them on, his shoulders slumping slightly as he eased up on the tension. His nose crinkled slightly in discomfort of having them on, but he made no move to adjust them.

"So yeah. Dick move from other-me. Just letting you know I don't do that shit. Someone's faith is their own goddamn business, and it's not my place to diss it. You wanna wear face paint and worship your gods, be my fucking guest. I wont say a damn thing, and that's a promise."

Gamzee sort of stared at Dave like was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Dave's expression remained solid and unyielding. Keeping a shrewd eye on the other troll, Gamzee leaned back, grunting with affirmation. "…Right," he replied. It certainly wasn't the response he had been expecting, but he wasn't going to split hairs on the matter.

Dave nodded, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. "…So what was your damage with Karkat?" he asked. "You two seemed to be at least on tolerable terms. Did he say something, or you say something, or what?"

Gamzee scowled, staring down at the blood-stained cloth in his hands. "…Motherfucker was pissed about something," he muttered. "Tried to settle his ass, like old motherfuckin' times. It just set him off."

"'Old times'?" Dave asked, arching a brow. "…you guys used to be something?" Gamzee's hands clenched the cloth tighter.

"…Almost were motherfuckin' moirails," he replied, his words coming out thicker and more terse. "…had an…episode. Killed some motherfuckers. Wanted to motherfuckin' kill more. Karkat…..brought me out of it." He broke off, the cloth now being wrung in his hands.

"…I'm guessing there wasn't a moiraillegience that came out of it," Dave said, starting to connect some dots.

Gamzee nodded, growling softly. "The MOTHERFUCKIN' blasphemer," he spat, drops of his blood being wrung from the cloth by this point. "…he came. Right when Karkat and me were…starting out. Started out real slow-like. Spending less motherfuckin' time with me. Wasn't there when I motherfuckin' looked for him. Was too busy to motherfuckin' be around me.

"…then…I'm stayin' the motherfuck away from the spider-bitch…crawlin' around in the vents so I aint gotta see her. Found a room where most everyone was…saw Karkat with that motherfucker. They were motherfuckin' laughing about somethin'. LAUGHING." His jaw clenched, baring his teeth. "…he never laughed around me. Aint hardly ever motherfuckin' smiled around me. Like…like I wasn't…"

A light dripping on his arm made him look down, seeing a transparent dot of purple splattered over it. He growled, scrubbing at the tiny splatter with the cloth, only smearing his blood on his arm instead. He snarled, throwing the cloth to the floor.

"I WAS MOTHERFUCKIN' USELESS!" he screeched, burying his hands in his hair. "IF I WASN'T MOTHERFUCKIN' KILLING, I WAS USELESS AS FUCK!" More drops splattered onto his legs. "I'd….I'd have to be reminded to motherfuckin' change an' bathe an' groom my worthless ass…had to be reminded to motherfuckin' eat sometimes…..made him out to be my motherfuckin' lusus…" He scrubbed at his face, smearing his paint. "I DIDN'T WANT A MOTHERFUCKIN' LUSUS! I WANTED A MOTHERFUCKIN' MOIRAIL! BUT WHAT MOTHERFUCKIN' GOOD WAS I!?"

He let out a high-pitched screeching whine, his claws digging into his face, trying to force that unmirthful side from showing its ugly face, jerking hard when he felt a hand find itself into his hair and pat down in a definite shooshing motion, feeling that darkness slide its ass right back into the corner it belonged in.

Dave didn't care if he was making a vacillation, but he wasn't about to have an unstable Purple go shithive all over the place. He made his presence as calming as he possibly could, petting and ruffling Gamzee's hair. "Shoosh," he said quietly. "Calm down. Claws out of your face…yeah, there we go." He took another cloth off the table and put it in Gamzee's hands.

Gamzee swallowed hard, hastily wiping his face, taking most of his paint with the tears and blood. He let out a hard, shuddering sigh before glancing back up at Dave, eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion. Dave raised his hands slightly, signaling no trickery meant.

"…Look, you just needed some calming right there. Not Pale flirting or anything. Just doing my job." He reached up and shifted his shades to rub at his eyes. "…Going by what Rose told me, you weren't in any state for ANY Quadrant," he said, leaning back. "Your psychosis was too deep and too strong to handle ANY type of relationship. And yeah. You pissed people off, broke a few hearts, and left a few scars, both physical AND mental. These are facts."

He paused, then took off his shades, looking Gamzee in the eye, letting him know there was nothing but sincerity in his words. "You're talking to the fucking KING of shit relationships right here, man. I've inadvertently shattered more hearts than you could imagine, and I didn't even have the excuse of Highblood psychosis to fall back on. And right now, with the medication and training Rose is providing, neither do you. Get your shit together with this, learn to control your own mind, and it wont be a reason for failed relationships anymore. You can be what any moirail, matesprit, or kismesis needs, without swinging to either extreme. And you can even start mending whatever bridges you didn't burn the fuck down. How's that sound?"

Gamzee found himself staring again, trying to process what was presently happening. Someone was actually talking to him rather than AT him. Yes, Rose spoke to him, but that was about shit that had nothing to do with his personal issues. The last person to just talk to him was Tavros, and that was a long, long time ago.

Shit. That was a load off his chest, and now he just felt drained and lightened and he needed a Faygo like there was no fucking tomorrow.

A towel dropping over his head made him jump with a short startled honk, jerking it off his head and giving Dave a weak glower. Dave just smirked, crossing his arms.

"Clean your ass up, Chuckles," he said, emitting his Caliginous aura again. "Dry your tears of self-pity, put that shitty makeup back on your face, and meet me outside in ten minutes with whatever bullshit weaponkind you have in your shit arsenal. We're gonna strife this bitch out like Spades is going out of style!" He flicked Gamzee's forehead and dodged a clawed swipe before heading out the door.

Gamzee growled, feeling a rush of pitch rivalry surge through him. Yeah, he decided, slipping into the bathroom and wiping his face clean before reaching for the tub of white paint, THIS was more like it.

It took him a bit longer than usual to apply his paint; he hadn't had to apply it with a smile on his face in almost a sweep.


	20. Chapter 19

**Otherus 19**

Karkat didn't stop struggling until Gamzee was inside the hive, and then he just dropped like the switch had been turned off. Terezi helped Rose ease him up, keeping a hold on him just in case he caught a second wind.

"What the hell even happened there?" Rose demanded, walking him inside. Karkat remained stubbornly silent, saying nothing as Rose steered him into the nutritionblock and sat him down. Kanaya hurried in and looked him over, scowling when she saw the claw marks on his cheek, her skin glowing slightly with anger.

"Where is Gamzee now?" she growled, her fingers twitching for her pocket, forgetting her lipstick was no longer in there. Rose came back over with a wet cloth and some medicine.

"Dave's got him," she replied as she cleaned off Karkat's face, knowing the growl that came from the smaller troll wasn't just from the sting of the cuts alone. "And don't go off on him, Kanaya, Karkat started it and gave as good as he got."

Karkat's expression could only be described as the bastard lovechild between a snarl and a pout, and Kanaya would have honestly laughed if she wasn't so worried. "So what happened?" she asked, taking the bloody cloth from Rose to dispose of later. Again, Karkat remained silent.

Kanaya exchanged a look with Rose, who began putting the medicine on his cuts, hoping they didn't scar and gave him a set to match Gamzee's. "…Karkat, talk to us," she said softly. "If nothing more than to prevent what happened from happening again."

Karkat's jaw visibly flexed under Rose's medication application, his hands flexing tightly before he finally heaved a heavy sigh, like the weight of his own rage had forced him to collapse. At this point, it didn't matter, and he just stopped caring. "…Gamzee…tried to shooshpap me," he finally said.

Rose arched a brow. "Context would be appreciated, because now you're just coming off as a dick for hitting him first," she replied. Kanaya shot her a look, but Rose gave her a 'just wait' look in reply. As expected, Karkat put on his 'about to rant your fucking ears off so buckle the fuck up and start praying' look.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HE DID!" he snapped at Rose. "WHAT HE DID TO ME! I WATCH ERIDAN GO FUCKING APESHIT AND I WORRY ABOUT HIS STUPID ASS, ONLY FOR HIM TO GO SHITHIVE TOO!" He growled, his hands flexing into the kitchen counter.

"WE FINALLY FIND HIM AND I SHOOSHPAP HIS ASS INTO A STATE OF CALM, AND FUCK, ARENT I AN IDIOT FOR THINKING THINGS WILL BE HUNKY-FUCK-MOTHERING-DORY! I END UP DOING I END UP DOING ALL THE FUCKING MOIRAILLEGIENCE WORK WHILE HE VASCILLATES BETWEEN BEING A USELESS FUCK TO BEING NOWHERE TO BE SEEN WHEN _I_ NEED HIM!"

Angry tears came to his eyes, dripping down his face, his voice hitting a strained pitch.

"So I END that shit….I fucking ended it, and he didn't even fucking CARE….after ALL THAT FUCKING WORK I PUT INTO TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK…!" He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking hard.

"…So when he tries to comfort you, you cant help but think 'why the fuck would he care now?'," Rose finished. The high-pitched whine Karkat muffled into his hands let her know she hit the nail on the head. "…But that's only half the story, and you know it. It's not just the Pale gesture Gamzee sent your way, it's what happened to put you INTO that state. So spill. And seriously, don't pull any of that 'none of your fucking business' crap, because there's a good chance everyone knows what it is anyway. We're just trying to settle this."

Karkat rubbed his face hard, his face going bright red at the horrible embarrassment of what apparently EVERYONE knew. Not that he had been subtle at all. He took a few shaking breaths. "…I'm…being a fucking idiot," he replied, sounding emotionally exhausted. "…it's just like Gamzee….trying to see something that isn't there…"

"Stop beating around the bush, Karkat. You stormed out in a hissy fit when you saw Dave calming John down," Terezi piped up from her corner. "You're Pale as shit for Dave, and got stupid jealous when you saw him shooshpapping John out of his shitflip. Like Rose said. WE ALL KNOW."

She could honestly smell how red his face was from where she was standing, but she could also smell the horrible emotional turmoil that was practically festering around him like an aura.

"Karkat," Rose said, putting her hands on his shoulders and ignoring his muscles tensing. "Didn't Dave tell you what he was?" The bewildered look Karkat gave her made her sigh and shake her head, like she couldn't believe she had to be explaining this after ALL Dave and Karkat had been through. "…Karkat, Dave is what they call a Romantic Proteus mutant. He's not just bullshitting when he says he fills Quadrants where they're needed….it's like…literally his superpower. He can CREATE a Romantic bond with ANYONE, and change it up whenever he wishes.

"Not that he would ever intentionally hurt someone with it!" she added hastily, seeing Karkat's expression. "…Karkat, he wasn't offering to be John's moirail. In fact, Jade's got John's Pale Quadrant filled right now. He's only offered to be Gamzee's kismesissal stand-in to help me out with what needs to be done."

Explanations be damned, Terezi could still smell that torrential aura around Karkat, knowing automatically what he was thinking. That whatever bond he felt he had with Dave was nothing more than an artificial fabrication. She stood up and walked over, grabbing his head in her hands.

"Terezi, what the FUCK—"

Terezi ignored him, clenching her eyes shut and resting her head against his, willing SOME form of her power to PLEASE not be a dick about this and give her SOMETHING to work with.

Miraculously, it did.

Like a third-person view, both she and Karkat could see the memory of Dave and Karkat bonding in the sitting room, Dave's offering to be whatever Karkat needed him to be, out of a kindness and not a necessity, them laughing until they cried and had to support each other up, baring their tear colors without a single fear or shame.

Terezi leaned back, keeping her firm hold on Karkat's head. "…If that's a 'fake' Romance, then I'll eat my shades without grubsauce," she said seriously. Her nose twitched. "It's subtle, but I'm getting the smell of Dave's Romantic hormone changes and REAL Quadrant hormone changes in the air. Me and Vriska saw you and Dave, Karkat. That was REAL. Just as real as anything you felt for Dave back home." At Karkat's flinch, she growled, tightening her hands.

"AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!" she shouted, making sure he was hearing her. "Let's face FACTS here, Karkat! WE MIGHT NOT GET TO GO HOME. It's a REAL possibility! And if I know Dave like I KNOW I do, he wouldn't give two shits and a fuck with some damn on the side if you bonded with the Dave HERE! You know how he got when you beat yourself up!" She quietly let his head go.

"Karkat, NO ONE here is thinking you're committing Pale infidelity. So PLEASE. Just calm down, stop lashing out, and let yourself be Pale for Dave, because I'd like to think that with someone like HIS ability, he'd want a REAL relationship too."

Karkat could feel cascades of tears falling down his face, looking like a wiggler in need of a good shooshpapping on a pile for a few hours. Kanaya sighed and pulled his head to her shoulder, rubbing his back.

"…Rose has told me that the medication they have here has apparently done some…pardon me for using this word, but it must be used… _miracles_ with Gamzee's psychosis," she said quietly. "I've observed him myself, and he seems to be…incredibly well-adjusted." She sighed, patting his back. "…What I'm trying to say is…I don't think he was TRYING to be ignorant and hurtful. I think he was being genuine in wanting to comfort you."

Karkat mumbled something along the lines of 'stupid clown', but didn't protest or deny what was said. Kanaya sighed, rubbing his back again.

"I think he's just trying to mend the bridge he left behind with you. Something we should all take the opportunity to do, since we're all working for the same goal. The least we can do is try."

The four of them remained in quiet silence for a few minutes before Vriska hurried in and started rummaging around the food locker for one of Dave's sodas. "What are you doing?" Rose asked, exasperated at the thought of having to put up with Dave's whining of people touching his drink stash.

"Just getting some refreshments for the strifing Dave and Gamzee are having in the backyard," Vriska replied offhandedly, grabbing a few and hurrying out. "Not missing THAT shit, FUCK no…"

The others looked among themselves for a moment before scrambling up to follow Vriska, who had procured a lawn chair and was reclining back to watch the show.

Gamzee and Dave were indeed strifing it out, Gamzee using his clubs while Dave was keeping the fight fair with dual swords that took the spectators a few moments to realize were dull metal and non-lethal.

Having never seen Dave face off against Gamzee, the visiting trolls were surprised at how well Dave was faring. The mutant-blood had more speed than strength, which was an advantage against a Highblood whose blows could shatter rock, and his agility rivaled Gamzee's own, leading to rather interesting blow-and-block techniques.

Gamzee managed to catch an advantage when Dave had to duck extra low in order to keep his horns from getting hit and lost his balance, leaving Gamzee to kick a sword away, knock Dave onto his back, and then pin him down with a foot to his chest.

Karkat instinctively jerked forward to stop it, but Rose caught the back of his shirt. "Calm down," she said quietly, a hint of a smile on her face. "He's got this."

"You don't understand, Gamzee—" Karkat was cut off by the sound of Gamzee laughing. Not psychotic, honk-laid laughter, but genuinely amused if not arrogant laughter.

Gamzee stepped off Dave, grinning. "Match set, motherfucker," he said, smirking. "Be easier to pin your ass down if your stupid-ass horns weren't fuckin' up your landing."

Dave sat up, brushing his clothes off. "Hey, you're just jealous a mutation got these glorious bad boys and you got stuck with a mediocre set," he retorted, exaggerating a sweeping stroke of his left horn. "So who REALLY won this fight?" He yelped when Gamzee shoved him over.

"I motherfuckin' did, that's the point," he retorted. "And we both know it aint the horn size that matters, motherfucker." He gave Dave a genuinely lewd grin that had the spectators blushing their respective colors.

"…Oh my god, is Makara SERIOUSLY hateflirting with Dave?" Vriska asked, grimacing. "Because EWWWWWWWW."

It was a sentiment shared by everyone else.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

 _ **This one's more of an interlude than anything, hence how brief it is.**_

* * *

The Quadrant arrangements seemed to, for the most part, be working.

Rose was relieved that things were going well. She honestly didn't know how she would be able to handle training up two trolls who couldn't stand the others' presence without some distraction for them.

John seemed to be more petulant of the two, apparently still smarting over the Quadrant leap he was in. He rarely conversed with Gamzee other than to show his disdain with the situation, and more than once, Rose had to give him a warning glare whenever he had a blunt object in his hand and Gamzee's back was turned.

His behavior was becoming a source of concern for her. The bright light in his eyes was dimmed, his temper was on a hair-trigger, and he growled more than he talked. The only time he relaxed was when Jade came in to calm him down, turning into a barkbeast under her paps and horn-scritches.

Even outside of the training, he remained detached from the others, and even the Alternian trolls seemed troubled by seeing the bright, chipper John they had been introduced to being reduced to this brooding spectacle.

After a particularly tense session of her having to stop a snarling match between John and Gamzee, Rose retired to her sitting room, cracking open the liquor cabinet and getting a few drinks she developed that gave her the buzz without the addictive effect. She was on her second bottle when Kanaya found her.

"…I'm supposing things have not been going well," Kanaya said, sitting down quietly. Rose snorted, taking a swig from the bottle.

"No," she said, rubbing her temples. "It's not. To be honest, I thought Gamzee was going to be the problem…but he's been cooperative and manageable. That kismesissitude with Dave has done wonders for his excess aggression."

Kanaya sat down next to her, smiling a little. "That's true. Though I don't think Dave was expecting a genuine reciprocation. I do recall pitch feelings between Gamzee and my world's Dave…if it only weren't so unhealthy and one-sided." She cleared away the empty bottle and took the half-empty one form Rose's hand.

Rose didn't protest. "But JOHN…he's…UGH!" She rubbed her head. "I was SO STUPID. ALL I seem to do is just HURT him! I'm a SHIT moirail, Kanaya!"

"Rose, stop that talk right now!" Kanaya scolded, taking Rose's hands from her head. "It's plain to anyone that you had a very good moiraillegience with John. But time and circumstance changes relationships all the time. John has been spoiled with such a good moirail that he's a bit emotionally unable to accept it right at this time. But he will, trust me." She smiled. "You've done nothing wrong, Rose. Changing the moiraillegience to an auspisticism was the right choice."

Rose wiped her eyes, nodding. "You're right," she replied softly. "…Too often, I take John's emotional consideration with no regards to my own. I just…I still feel so guilty about this happening to him. It's my fault that we even need this to begin with."

"Perhaps so," Kanaya conceded. "But it's time to move on. John has no ill will toward you for what happened to him sweeps ago, so you should replace that guilt with determination to make this work." She paused, then hugged Rose tightly. "I know all about guilt and what I should have done and feeling like I've failed at something important. But I move on and try to make things right. You're strong, Rose, stronger than perhaps I'll ever be. You can do this."

Rose smiled, hugging her back. "Thank you, Kanaya," she said. "I needed that."

Kanaya smiled. "Take it from an experienced auspistice," she replied, "even we need our support." She kissed Rose's forehead, pausing before blushing bright white. Rose giggled, poking Kanaya's cheek.

"Always wanted to be a rainbow drinker," she said, smiling. "All glowing and pretty-like. You lucky ducky, you." Kanaya laughed, her blush light dampening down.

"That's one way to put it, I suppose," she said, corking the bottle and putting it back into the cabinet, closing it up. "Come on now. You need rest, and those boys need to get a grip." She helped Rose up, walking her to the Grimdark's respiteblock.

Rose walked in silence, smiling softly. "…Your Rose is a lucky girl," she said under her breath. "If only I had a matesprit half as wonderful as you."

Kanaya swallowed hard, pretending she didn't hear as she opened the door. "…good day, Rose," she said. She turned to go before pausing and giving Rose a quick kiss before hurrying out.

Rose's cheeks turned dark purple as she tried to determine if she had imagined it or not, settling on slipping into her recuperacoon and closing her eyes. If it wasn't real, she could at least pretend it was.


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Karkat woke up early, a quick walk-through of the hive showing that he was the first one awake. He sighed, feeling somewhat grateful for the fact, not really wanting to converse with anyone at the moment. He made up some coffee and sipped it, staring out the window to watch the sunset.

He honestly couldn't stand being around anyone for the past few days, no matter what his rationale was telling him. He shouldn't be jealous of John. He shouldn't feel so possessive of Dave. He shouldn't be having Pale regrets about Gamzee. Regardless, he WAS feeling, and he was sick to shit and back of FEELING FEELINGS.

At least he could attempt to drown the stupid emotions in coffee until he was dead inside. Yeah, that sounded like a plan.

His coffee sipping emotional drowning was interrupted by a soft thump from the sitting room next block over, accompanied by hushed voices. He sighed, at least wanting to finish his third cup before having to deal with people, heading out to put on a polite act in asking if anyone would want some coffee, his voice catching in his throat before he was fully out the door.

Dave was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and looking over his shades at Gamzee, who was half-blocking with a hand on the wall next to Dave's head and looming over the shorter troll with an almost lecherous grin on his face.

"—gonna wake the whole damn hive up, assclown," Dave was saying. "Cant even wait until we're outside before getting physical, can you?" He uncrossed his arms, putting a hand on his hip and striking an exaggerated pose. "I KNOW I'm hot, but please, for the sake of the children, keep it PG."

Gamzee snorted, flicking Dave's horns. "Only impressive thing about you are your motherfuckin' horns," he retorted. "An' we both fuckin' know they still aint what counts." He emphasized his innuendo with a lewd jolt of his hips.

Karkat suddenly felt sick to his stomach, barely able to keep from dropping his coffee cup as he hurried back into the nutritionblock and out the back door, not caring if it slammed shut or not. He half-ran to the border of the woods, sitting down on a log and put his head between his knees, taking deep breaths, quelling his instinctive urge to scream and pull out his sickle.

The urge was too strong to ignore, and Karkat instead stuffed his mouth with a handful of his shirt, screaming into it as hard as he could, the muffled noise still loud enough to scare a few featherbeasts away from their perches on the branches.

 _'WHY!?'_ he screamed inside his head. WHY was this universe hell-bent on fucking with every emotion he was capable of feeling!? EXACERBATING whatever he thought he quelled down!? Leaving him unable to function around other people to the point where he just wanted to KILL something just to take the edge off!?

He screamed into his shirt gag until it hurt, which took a LONG while considering his history with screaming as it was, and by that point his shirt was soaked, his throat was raw, and his migraine was back at full blast. He just wanted to curl up and sleep forever, without anyone around to aggravate his already-raw emotions.

"The hell are you DOING over here?"

Karkat's head shot up, tensing hard from the effort to not go for his weapon, swallowing hard when he saw John staring at him. He was about to reply with the ever-so-classic 'nothing' when he realized his face was wet with tears and he still had some saliva around his mouth, and his clawtips were red with blood from clutching his scalp. So he was pretty sure 'nothing' was not going to fly.

Classic #2 it was then.

"None of your fucking business, nookwhiff!" he snarled, scrubbing at his face with the shirt, minutely glad it was already wet to make the job easier. "Get the fuck lost, Egbert!" He turned his back to John again, feeling a soft prick of guilt at snapping at John like that, having recalled the last time he lashed out at the unsuspecting troll. But he wasn't good for being around ANYONE right now, and he hope John wouldn't take it too personally—

"You don't OWN the place, I don't HAVE to get lost!" John snapped back, a snarl simmering around his retort. "If YOU don't like it, YOU leave, preferably back to where you came from!"

Karkat turned back around, staring in an odd mix of incredulousness at John's tone, offense at having been spoken to like that, and a nice big slap of Spades right in the throat.

NO. NOT THAT SHIT AGAIN. He quelled the pitch feelings down, snarling back at John. "Oh, BELIEVE ME, Egbert, if I could click my heels together three times and be sent right into the center of the fuck-mothering SUN, it would be a MASSIVE improvement over having to stay here and look at your repulsive, nausea-inducing face for longer than two seconds! Two seconds, MIGHT I ADD, are too precious to be spent having ANY focus on the likes of you! Two seconds longer that would be better spent emptying my bowels or vomiting up righteous retribution to whatever absolute FUCKERY I ever have to hear come out of your mouth! So FUCK YOU, John Egbert! FUCK you, and FUCK YOUR FACE!"

Karkat then found himself sprawled back on the ground with blood spurting out of his nose, having been put there with John's fist. It took him about three seconds to fully register what happened, and then began swearing up a storm, putting a hand to his face in an attempt to stop the blood gushing from his nose. "MOTHERFUCKER!" he shouted, the blood from his nose slurring up his lips. "YOU FECULANT MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!" He jumped up, baring his teeth at John.

John bared his right back, holding up his fists, the left of which having bright red smeared on the knuckles. "FUCK YOU RIGHT BACK!" he shouted, his eyes blazing indigo. "IF IT WERENT FOR YOU, I WOULDN'T BE DOWN A MOIRAIL! YOU AND THE REST OF THE ASSHOLES WHO DECIDED TO FUCK UP MY LIFE MORE THAN IT ALREADY WAS!" He leaped forward, taking another swing at Karkat.

Karkat managed to dodge that blow, kicking John in the thigh. "IT WASN'T MY FUCKING FAULT, YOU DOUCHENOZZLE!" he screeched. "IF ANYTHING, IT WAS _YOURS_!" He yelped when John threw another punch and caught his shoulder, feeling a sharp throb and was suddenly reminded of his John's 'mangrit' capabilities. No turning the fuck back NOW. "YOURS!" He slashed at John's head with his claws. "AND STRIDER AND HARLEY AND LALONDE—"

John let out a shrill roar, grabbing Karkat's front and slamming him into the ground, punching him in the face again. "I AM NOT YOUR JOHN!" he screamed. He went for another punch, which skived off target when Karkat slashed at his face with his claws.

"I FUCKING KNOW THAT!" Karkat shrieked back. "YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER COULDN'T HOLD A GODDAMN THING TO HIM! I HATE YOU! I FUCKING HATE YOU!"

John snarled down at him, dripping indigo blood from the cuts on his face, heaving for breath with murder in his eyes. Karkat growled right back, his claws flexing for another blow.

Dave and Gamzee ran out of the hive, having heard the screaming going on and each recognizing the voice of the two doing the screaming, both nearly skidding to a halt when they found John and Karkat aggressively making out on the ground, bloodied up and fighting each other for dominance, spitting out insults and threats when they got a second of breathing space.

The two spectators stared for a good while until it became incredibly uncomfortable to continue, turning on heel and walking back inside. Dave's cheeks were bright red and Gamzee looked like he had just swallowed expired Faygo.

"…Dibs on not breaking THEM up," Dave said, beelining for the coffee pot. Gamzee grunted assent.

"…Gonna get motherfuckin' Rosesis to do that," he replied, heading down the hall to do just that.

Dave sipped his coffee with a shaking hand, glancing out the window and cringing, pulling the shades down. "Did NOT need to see that," he muttered.

* * *

Vriska finally woke up, stumbling out of her room and going for the smell of coffee in the respiteblock. Terezi followed, looking just as zombie-like. "Were Jade's barkbeasts having a pissing match again?" Vriska mumbled. "Coulda sworn I heard—"

She was cut off when Kanaya kicked open the back door, dragging in half-naked and bloody John and Karkat by the ears, scowling. "—and THIS is why we need to TALK about our feelings, so this sort of thing doesn't get out of hand!" Kanaya was scolding. "Nearly KILLING each other with Caliginous fornication! AND OUTSIDE! LIKE BEASTS!" She marched them both past Vriska and Terezi and toward the bathroom. "You two wash up—YES, I WILL BE WATCHING, KARKAT, SINCE YOU CANT BE TRUSTED!"

The bathroom door slammed shut.

Vriska blinked. Terezi sniffed the air.

"….Please tell me one of them was naked," Terezi said. Vriska blinked again.

"…I can tell you in detail what John's ass looks like, if that's what you mean," she replied, going for some coffee. "…If only it didn't have Karkat-sized clawmarks on it."

Dave spewed out his coffee.


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

John and Karkat sat on opposite ends of the sitting room, having washed and dressed under Kanaya's sharp glare, both now sporting violent blushes of their respective blood colors as they took in the full realization of what had happened. John was in more of a numb, shocked silence while Karkat was barely able to withhold the badly-repressed strangled nonsensical syllables that kept creaking up from his throat.

 _How the absolute fuck did this happen!?_ It was a question that was running through his mind at least fifteen times a second, and he STILL didn't know. One moment he was aching to tear John's throat out and piss on the corpse, and the next his pants were gone and he was trying to shove his bulge up John's—

NO! NO, NOT NOW! He bit back a groan, clenching his thighs together, forcing his bulge to remain sheathed an unaroused. It took colossal effort, but he managed to keep it under control. The sight of everyone else coming in and giving him knowing, amused looks took most of the credit, though.

Vriska kicked back in a seat, blue in the face from her effort to not burst out laughing at Karkat and John's expense. Terezi looked just as amused, but wasn't putting any effort into hiding it. Jade gave Karkat and John apologetically embarrassed looks. Gamzee wouldn't look either in the eye, and Dave's shaded poker face was in firm place, only the barest hint of red around the cheeks betraying his apathy.

Kanaya was sitting next to Karkat, arms crossed and unamused like a disgruntled lusus, looking like the literal last thing she wanted to wake up to was having to separate two screeching trolls pitching violently in the throes of hate and grubsit them as they washed off and made themselves decent for this meeting.

Rose walked in and sat down, sighing heavily and massaging her temples. "Okay," she said, looking around. "We woke up to a rough start—"

"Rough on John's ass," Vriska muttered, making Terezi snort so loud she started Gamzee. Rose glowered in her direction as Karkat buried his face in his hands and John went bluer in the face.

"—can we PLEASE be mature about this?" she asked. "It was a Caliginous affair. It HAPPENS. I'm pretty sure Kanaya was more annoyed that it happened indecently OUTSIDE, rather than it happening in general."

Kanaya nodded assent, pursing her lips and giving Karkat another scolding look that he didn't see because his face remained firmly pressed to his hands. John made a whining sound mirroring Karkat's stance.

Rose sighed, taking his hands and lowering them. "John, ignore the peanut gallery. There's nothing wrong with filling a Caliginous Quadrant."

"Or a Caliginous bucket," Vriska said, making Terezi break out into cackling giggles. Both shut right up when Gamzee snarled loudly at them.

"Thank you, Gamzee," Rose said, sighing again. "This is something that should have been done some time ago, but silly me for thinking all of us have our faculties under control. So here's what's going to happen. Because of these unique circumstances, we are going to have a controlled, group feelings jam. Kanaya and I will act as mediators. We will be going around to everyone, and they will have the chance to get everything out in the open.

"Now. Offence may be taken, and feelings may be hurt. But hiding things and letting them stew on into grudges will only hurt our chances of making this whole thing work. TRUST is key here. And whether you have Caliginous, Pale, or Flushed feelings for one another or not, it does not mean we all cant come to some sort of understanding."

Rose took a deep breath and let it out. "…I have been feeling like a failure of a Grimdark, a moirail, and an auspistice," she said as a starter, looking at John, who had looked up when she began speaking. "John, I have hurt you more than anyone else in the world. I dragged you into something there may be no way of getting out of, and despite my best intentions, I've only sheltered you and caused more harm than good.

"I should have talked to you before announcing I was ending our moiraillegience…" She teared up, clenching her hands into her dress. "…And from the past few days, I can only see how much you relied on me for your emotional stabilization. I haven't even been able to be a decent auspistice, and that's only caused more problems. I just wanted you to know that…I truly and honestly only had the best intentions for you in vacillating from a moiraillegience to an auspisticism. The last thing I want in this world is to cause you pain."

She burst into tears, burying her face into her purple sash. "…I'm….I'm so sorry, John…I'm sorry…"

Karkat glanced up at John, noting that the Indigo was looking torn between wanting to hurry up and comfort her and a wounded coldness that kept him from doing so, something completely understandable from his point of view. He too had once felt the sharp slap in the face of a shattered moiraillegience, and it was incredibly conflicting and migraine-inducing.

Dave reached over, rubbing her back. "Easy, Rose," he murmured. "It's alright. Let it out." He glanced up at Kanaya and gave her a very pointed look. Kanaya turned a shade lighter and hurried over, sitting next to her and papping her head, shooshing her quietly. Rose quickly recovered, wiping her face.

"I'm fine," she murmured quietly. "I'm okay, Kanaya, thank you…" She took a deep breath and let it out, keeping her eyes closed for a moment before straightening. "…Gamzee, would you like to go next?"

Gamzee's jaw twitched, but he nodded. "…Gonna…be the motherfuckin' first to tell my brother and sisters of home-world about how motherfuckin'…sorry I am." He wrung his hands together, staring at the floor. "Wicked ignorance aint no excuse for me. Motherfuckin' ate sopor pies even though I knew they were motherfuckin' poison. Dumbed my shit down, suppressed what I should've motherfuckin' been managing since I was a little brother. Didn't…didn't motherfuckin' TALK to no one when I could feel that murderous noise in my think pan."

He paused, chewing at his lip for a moment before continuing.

"…Didn't…think I COULD talk to no one," he said slowly, as though weighing his words, flicking his purple gaze up at Karkat. "…Thought I could talk to YOU Karbro. But…I…I only remembered your motherfuckin' hurtful words I was too motherfuckin' high to comprehend…didn't think you motherfuckin' WANTED to hear me…"

A hand slipped over his mouth, his complexion going slightly pale. "…then…then I motherfuckin'…found Tavros…" His breath became shaky, looking vaguely sick. "…I just…I could…motherfuckin' feel…that last little bit of good slip outta my motherfuckin' hands…" The gold of his eyes turned orange. "I JUST WANTED TO MOTHERFUCKIN' KILL EVERYONE WHO EVER HURT ME! WHO EVER MADE ME FEEL SCARED OR MOTHERFUCKIN' USELESS AND UNWANTED! SO I DID! AND IT WAS SO MOTHERFUCKIN' EASY!"

He paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out, his eyes settling back to gold. "…I woulda killed everyone…if you hadn't calmed me down, Karkat." He looked over at Karkat, who was gripping his chair with white knuckles. "…I didn't know how to motherfuckin' function…nothin'…made sense in my motherfuckin' head anymore…I couldn't give you a moiraillegience reciprocation…" His jaw twitched again, a hint of a snarl on his lips.

"…But you kept me calm. Until you ditched me for the MOTHERFUCKIN' BLASPHEMER!" He buried his hands in his hair, tugging slightly. "YOU DIDN'T EVEN MOTHERFUCKIN' TALK TO ME! YOU JUST DITCHED ME! FOR _HIM_!" He glowered at Karkat. "You KNEW what he said about my motherfuckin' deities! You KNEW how I motherfuckin' felt about him! BUT YOU NEVER—NOT ONCE—MADE HIM MOTHERFUCKIN' STOP! NOT EVEN OUT OF WHATEVER SPECK OF MOTHERFUCKIN' RESPECT FOR WHAT WE HAD! DO YOU HAVE ANY MOTHERFUCKIN' IDEA HOW MUCH THAT MOTHERFUCKIN' HURT ME!?"

He didn't even give Karkat a chance to open his mouth before rounding at Vriska. "AND YOU!" he spat, glowering at her. "YOU MOTHERFUCKIN' KILLED MY TAVROS! YOU JUST MOTHERFUCKIN' TORTURED ME! YOU MADE ME FEAR FOR MY MOTHERFUCKIN' LIFE AND SANITY! YOU DIDN'T LET ME FIND ANOTHER MOIRAIL, OR A KISMESIS, OR A MATESPRIT! YOU JUST…YOU… _ **FUCK!**_ "

He tapered off into deep, ragged breaths that shook with emotion. "You HURT me…" he whimpered. "…you motherfuckin' HURT me…m…made me….HURT…"

His hand absently trailed to his chest, staring weakly at Kanaya. "…and where were YOU? The motherfuckin' great mediator, who would've made her motherfuckin' STOP? You didn't care. None of you motherfuckin' CARED. So I motherfuckin' stopped caring! I…I…" He trailed off, staring back down at the floor, purple tears streaming down his face.

Rose swallowed hard. "…Go on, Gamzee," she said. Gamzee let out a long, shaky sigh, grabbing a cloth and scrubbing his face clean of tears and paint, his scars standing out in dark purple ribbons across his face.

"…I motherfuckin' hated all of you in ways that would defile even the pitchest of kismesissitudes. I wanted all of you to motherfuckin' die so I'd stop hurting. I focused all my motherfuckin' Rage into wanting it all to motherfuckin' END."

Karkat looked up at him, his brain twitching as those half-formed memories that plagued his nightmares started flickering over his mind's eye. Memories of Gamzee standing apart from them, shouting something. The big fight starting. Explosions, screaming, PAIN—

"—and if I ended up motherfuckin' dying too, then…I didn't motherfuckin' CARE."

Vriska stared at him, all eight pupils constricted. "…you…YOU were the one who led English to us! Roxy had us Voided from his view and YOU lead him right to us!" She lurched up, only to be held back by Rose and Kanaya. "ONE REASON, MAKARA! GIVE ME ONE FUCKING REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Gamzee maintained his stare to the floor. "…I aint got one," he replied, sounding tired. "…and in the end…he didn't motherfuckin' want me either…not for anything good." He rubbed his face, sighing heavily before fixing her with a piercing glare.

"But it wasn't like you motherfuckers made it hard for me to motherfuckin' CHOOSE to help him! I WASN'T MOTHERFUCKIN' WANTED! _'BARDS ARE A MOTHERFUCKIN' USELESS-ASS CLASS'_! THAT'S what you said! How the FUCK was I supposed to just sit back an' let you motherfuckers just fuck me over like that!?"

He and Vriska glowered at each other for a good while before Gamzee broke eye contact first. "…I'm sorry," he said. "…I fucked up. More than anyone in this motherfuckin' block. And I'm sorry for that." He rubbed his eyes. "…Why the motherfuck do you think I've been workin' so motherfuckin' HARD to keep my sanity? I'm tryin' to motherfuckin' FIX this shit I caused!" He shot her a last, weak glare.

"…what've YOU motherfuckin' done?"

Silence.

"…he's right."

Everyone looked up when Terezi spoke. Terezi flexed her hands into the cane she had alchemized with the sword from Jane's hive, chewing her lip. "…My abilities aren't as strong as they were in our world, but I can definitely sense a difference in him." She looked upwards into his direction. "It's not a jumbled, screaming hot mess of fuckery anymore. And let's face it. Whatever mindset he USED to have, crazy or stoned, he was easy to manipulate. So when he didn't have any Quadmates to help him out, when he was left alone, of COURSE he'd be attracted to the side that offered some attention. I don't blame him. Entirely, anyway."

Her expression became stony. "You had SOME lucidity during that shit, Gamzee. Enough to finally get into your head that what you were doing was going to fucking END us, AND you, and you tried to gather whatever effervescent little bubble-sparks of reality and stop it."

Karkat's hands clenched into the chair again. "…You remember what happened?" he demanded, his complexion pale. "I…I haven't been able to…"

Terezi nodded. "More than most anyone involved, actually," she replied. "Vriska just remembers Lord English almost vaporizing her. Kanaya just remembers our John, Jade, Dave, and Rose doing something that brought us here. But that's irrelevant to what we're supposed to be doing NOW."

She turned back to Gamzee. "…Maybe I was wrong to reject you that badly, Gamzee. But a kismesissitude wasn't what I needed when you offered it, and to be honest, I didn't feel the need for one at all further down the line. It still doesn't excuse the fact that I neglected my role as the Seer of Mind to keep tabs on our group. If I had paid attention, maybe I could've helped prevent you from going to Lord English. I could've changed your mind. So I'm sorry for that."

Kanaya wrung her hands slightly. "…And you're right about me being the 'great mediator'," she said. "As much as most could boast about me diffusing conflicts, I made mistakes…horrible ones. I look back and think of what I could have done to help Eridan…what I could have done to help YOU. I didn't realize you were being so badly mistreated, and chalked it all up to Highblood psychosis. I apologize as well. Late though it is."

Vriska scowled, crossing her arms, refusing to look at anyone until Terezi stomped on her foot. "FU—WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY!?" she snapped, glowering at her. "That I'm SORRY for keeping the insane Subjugglator from going shithive on everyone?! From him dragging you into an unhealthy kismesissitude that would've been torture?! Like it or not, fear WORKS sometimes! It was for the—"

"Swear to motherfuckin' Messiahs, if you say 'for the greater good', I'm gonna motherfuckin' tear your throat out," Gamzee growled. "YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN' 'GREATER GOOD' IS WHAT DROVE ME TO ENGLISH! HOW MUCH GREATER WAS _THAT_!? So unless a part of your motherfuckin' 'GREATER GOOD' was for THIS shit to happen, STOW THAT HOOFBEASTSHIT! Your GREATER GOOD brought us HERE!"

"…He's right, Vriska," Terezi said. "Being a team leader means leading the WHOLE team. Even the ones you don't like. Yeah, he did some bad shit. But so did you. Only difference is, everyone gave YOU the benefit of the doubt to step your game up. No one gave him that chance. But THIS is a chance. We're clearing the air and trying to fix back up what started falling apart over a sweep ago. He's a big enough person to admit his mistakes." A hint of a smirk tugged at her lips. "You gonna let him be the bigger troll here?"

Vriska scowled, her eye twitching. "….Maybe….I could've been….less of a total dictating bitch," she finally said, sounding like she wanted to puke at any moment. She said nothing more.

"Vriska…" Kanaya said, but Gamzee raised his hand.

"Nah, Kansis," he said. "Best I'm gettin' from her. I'll take it." He gave Vriska a curt nod before leaning back.

Rose let out a sigh, glad the tension in the room had started to thin out, looking over at Karkat. "…Karkat?" she pressed. Karkat's hands remained clenched into the chair, looking ready to burst with several emotions, none of them good. "…Karkat, we're here to clear the air. Anything you say in this block will only be helpful in being rid of tensions that could hinder our progress into helping you get home."

Karkat's teeth clenched, barely repressing a snarl. "…Home," he said, almost spitting out the word. "WHAT fucking home, Rose? Huh? My planet? Fucking WASTED. My people? DEAD. My universe? Probably fucking DESTROYED by that FUCKING MONSTROSITY! WHO, BY THE WAY, PROBABLY SLAUGHTERED ALMOST HALF THE TEAM WE HAD LEFT!" He stood up and threw the chair across the room and into a wall.

"Karkat—!" Kanaya cried, but was shouted over, Karkat only getting warmed up.

"DAY. FUCKING. ONE. Has been NOTHING but ONE MINDFUCK OVER ANOTHER! AS THOUGH MY LIFE WASN'T FUCKED BEYOND ALL REPAIR ALREADY! LOOK THE FUCK AROUND, KANAYA!" He gestured wildly. "A rainbow-drinker, a blind-as-fuck Seer, a bitchy dictator, a mentally unbalanced Subjugglator, AND A GODDAMN MUTANT FREAK IS ALL THAT'S FUCKING LEFT! What a FUCKING GLORIOUS UNDERBEARKBEAST TEAM, AM I RIGHT!?"

He let out sobbing, insane laughter, rubbing at his face with shaking hands. "Oh my god…is it even fucking WORTH it to go back? Even if we pull this miracle out of our gallsphincters, how the fuck are we supposed to beat that thing that's waiting on the other end? Even if Vriska manages to steal all the luck in the universe, it wont fucking be enough." He dropped to the floor, hugging his knees.

"…I'm fucking scared," he said, his voice so soft and shaking it was barely audible. "I'm so…fucking SCARED…." Tears fell down his face, biting his lip until it bled. He flinched violently when he felt a hand on his shoulder, jerking his head up to see Gamzee staring down at him, seeing purple tears in his eyes.

"…I'm motherfuckin' scared too, Karbro," Gamzee said. "I don't wanna motherfuckin' go back. Not to THAT." He paused, then curled his arms around Karkat and hugged him tightly. "…Don't motherfuckin' look like that," he muttered. "…you're not a motherfuckin' coward. You'd shove your sickles in that motherfucker's eyes and call him your bitch before you ever motherfuckin' cried like this."

Karkat just made a choked sobbing sound in his throat, pressing his face to his knees for a moment before his head was lifted up by Gamzee's hands. Gamzee gave him a sad, desperate look. "…Karbro, I want you to motherfuckin' hit me."

The smaller troll blinked, surprised out of his own crying. "…what the absolute fuck…?" he said, tensing when Gamzee's hands shifted down to his shoulders and held on firmly.

"I want you. To motherfuckin' HIT ME," Gamzee repeated. "I brought that motherfucker to us and started this shit. I want you to motherfuckin' punch me so hard it'll forever remind me not to motherfuckin' do it again." He took Karkat's arms and unwound them from around his legs, standing and effortlessly pulling Karkat up with him.

Karkat stared up at Gamzee, his brow twitching as though trying to process what Gamzee was saying. On the one hand, it was a REALLY tempting offer. REALLY, REALLY tempting. On the other…what even the fuck? What was going on? Why was this happening? Was he trying to convey a black solicitation? WHY EVEN THE FUCK DID HE EVEN KEEP TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THIS GODDAMN ASSHAT JUGGALO!?

Karkat's long, un-spaced line of questioning finally broke whatever piece of string that was holding his physical temper back, letting out a shrill roar before driving his fist into Gamzee's face, sending the Highblood flying across the room, making Vriska dive out of the way before she became a casualty. Gamzee crashed into the wall and crumpled to the floor, KOed right the fuck out.

Everyone stared from Gamzee to Karkat, who was standing heaving like a winded hoofbeast, his clenched fist still outstretched, teeth bared and eyes blazing red. Kanaya made a move to get up, but Terezi put a hand on her arm.

"Chill, Kanaya," she murmured. "This is what Karkat needed." Her observation was proven right when Karkat exhaled deeply, lowering his fist, his shoulders slumping as though that punch released all the tension inside of them.

"…GodDAMN, that felt good," he said, flexing his hand before sitting back down on the floor, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes, zoning out into his happy place as Dave and Rose checked to make sure Gamzee hadn't broken anything vital.

Vriska stared at Karkat, remembering to close her jaw after a few moments. "…wow," she said "Just…wow." Terezi snickered softly.

"I know, right?" she said, grinning. She paused and sniffed the air, nudging Vriska and nodding to the left. "Looks like John's just as impressed."

Vriska looked over at John, seeing that the Indigo was staring at Karkat with barely-concealed Caliginous lust, muscles tensed and ready to pounce. Jade seemed to notice about the same time as Vriska did, hurrying over and quickly shooshpapping him until he at LEAST no longer looked like he was about to go pitch all over the place.

Rose sighed, easing Gamzee up onto a cot and snapping his nose back into place before cleaning up the mess. Blood, tears, a few broken bones, and stirring up of more Caliginous hormones. To be honest, she had expected worse from this feelings jam.


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Dave helped Rose shoo everyone out of her work room and tidy up, leaving Karkat to nap against the wall, nobody being foolish enough to try to wake him. Instead, Dave gently draped a sheet over him and headed down to John's block to check up on things.

Jade finally got John to calm down and was insisting on him taking a nap, closing the door behind her. "…really weird when someone you've known for sweeps who never had normal reactions suddenly starts Quadranting all over the place," she said, blushing. "How's Karkat?"

"Sleeping off his rage," Dave replied, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "Tons of pent-up aggression in that guy, I tell you what." He looked up when he saw Jade staring at him oddly. "…what?"

Jade tipped her head to the side. "…Dave? Why don't you just tell him how you feel?" she asked. Dave almost slipped off the wall, his cheeks turning bright red.

"What? What are you talking about? I don't—"

"Dave."

The two had a stare-off for a good while before Dave shook his head. "Not doing this," he muttered, heading off for his respiteblock. Jade scowled and followed him, glad everyone else was downstairs.

"Dave, don't even!" she said, walking into his block and shutting the door behind her. "Don't think I didn't notice you didn't even bother taking your turn in the jam. You have just as many issues to talk about as anyone else!"

"I'm not doing this,Jade," Dave replied tersely, sitting down on the bay window and glowering out at the sky. "It doesn't even fucking MATTER."

Jade quietly sat down next to him. "…it matters to ME," she replied. "Dave…you're really not fooling anyone but Karkat himself. You have REAL feelings for him…and not just your Proteus." Dave said nothing, but his hand clenched tightly. "…Dave…"

"You're supposed to be John's moirail, you know," he replied, his voice monotone so as not to convey anything affirmative or negative to her observations. Jade huffed.

"Don't pull that crap on me, Dave," she said. "You and I both know traditional Quadrant roles hardly mattered in this little group of ours. We've always been able to tell each other everything. And no one else is here. So spill." She tucked her legs under her to make herself comfortable.

Dave remained staring out the window for a good lone while, Jade sitting still and waiting patiently. Finally, he spoke up.

"…I fucked up," he said quietly, a slight choke to his voice. "I just…" He took off his shades, rubbing his eyes. "I didn't MEAN to feel this way…to make him feel this way for ME…I'm NOT his Dave!" He sighed heavily, leaning his head against the window glass. "What if this crazy scheme works, and they're able to go back? I couldn't hurt two people with him falling for me. I couldn't hurt two people like that."

Jade nibbled her lip quietly. "…that…that IS legitimate concern," she replied quietly. "…so why aren't you showing as much concern about Gamzee showing true Caliginous feelings for you? Or John for showing Caliginous feelings for Karkat? Caliginous feelings, might I add, that've already been consummated."

Dave twitched. "…Can we…please not mention that?" he asked quietly.

"No, we ARE mentioning it," Jade replied firmly. "Dave…you deserve happiness too. You know that, right?" She reached over and hugged his arm quietly.

Dave was still for a moment before reaching up and petting her head like he often did for her barkbeasts. "…So do you, Jade," he replied softly. "…I'm only sorry I could never give that happiness to you. Not even now. And I feel like such a piece of shit for it. It's a wonder how you can stand me."

Jade sighed, weakly punching his side. "Because you're my friend, you hoofbeast's ass," she retorted. "And yeah…I'm still crushing on you. Not gonna lie. But why would I throw away an awesome friendship because of it? When my romance comes along, you'll be old news."

"Oh, wow, ow, my heart!" Dave cried, clutching at his chest. "You've shot me, Jade, right through the heart! My ego's kept in there too you know!" Jade giggled and poked his side.

"Your ego could use a piercing, you dork!" she laughed, leaning against his shoulder. "…But I'm serious. Karkat needs you. And you need him. Filter through any excuse you want, it wont make it anymore true."

"…what's going to happen when he leaves?" Dave said softly. "I'm never going to find anyone like him ever again. I…couldn't take that, Jade. I honestly think I'd suffer for the rest of my life."

Jade slipped her hand into his, squeezing softly. "Then you'll have us. Me, John, and Rose. The Defective Romancers. We'll just gather around and have a big sleepover pile like we did when we were younger. Fuck the Romantic establishment!"

Dave let out soft, almost choked laughter. "…yeah," he said, squeezing her hand back. "It's totally what we are, isn't it? You, with your pack mentality. Rose with her scaring away anyone who gets close. John with…being JOHN….and me. The most defective of all."

"Defective for life," Jade said. "But defective together."

Neither noticed someone opening the door a smidge and accidentally witnessing them, nor did they notice the door close silently.

Karkat walked to the end of the hall, feeling slightly numbed over, not noticing he had his hand clenched into the chest of his shirt until he could feel his claws poking his skin. Seeing Dave and Jade just threw him back to one of the first real conversations he had with Dave.

" _I know I'm not your fucking moirail, but god fucking DAMN it if I know what it's like to see your Pale crush and not be able to have 'em."_

At first he thought Dave was talking about John, but it was made clear he was just being a quick stand-in. So of COURSE it would be Jade. His own Dave had expressed having feelings for his Jade at some point, so why the hell WOULDN'T it happen here? He knew Dave had this 'Romantic Proteus' mutation or whatever, but he actually thought Dave had REAL feelings for him—

"FUCK," he hissed under his breath, clenching his jaw in the effort it took to keep his eyes from tearing up. WHY did he have to be such a fucking IDIOT with his own Romantic life? Nothing he ever thought he felt was REAL. Only pointless, one-sided infatuation or pipe dreams.

…all except one thing.

He turned on heel and stalked down the hall and slipped into John's room, shutting the door behind him, staring at John's sleeping form.

Ugh, that idiotically serene look on the asshole's face just reminded him of when his 'hatred written in the stars' feeling came from. It was like falling in hate all over again. He walked over to the cot and and stood over John like a creep before crawling on to join him, growling lowly from the chest.

John shifted at feeling the extra weight on the cot, blinking awake. "...Karkat...?" he mumbled, squinting up from his lack of glasses to see properly, going only by his own hormonal reactions to guess who was with him. "...the hell are you DOING-?" He was cut off with Karkat's hand over his mouth accompanied by a louder, guttural growl.

"Shut the fuck up," Karkat hissed, grabbing John's pants with his free hand and jerking them open. "I want to fucking finish what we started, and if you'll be SO fucking kind to NOT start screaming like a wiggler, we can do this uninterrupted."

The constricting of John's pupils and vibrating growls from under him let Karkat know he and John were on the same page.

* * *

Rose crept to John's room, intending on just peeking in on him out of old habit, frowning when she heard muffled rustling inside. She hesitated for a moment before cracking the door open, taking a moment to process what she was seeing before flying off the handle with rash movements.

Karkat was situated as dominant over John, his hands around John's neck, eyes almost glowing in the dark as he growled and hissed Caliginous nothings at John, who in turn was clawing over Karkat's thighs and staining the cot sheets with bright red blood. Their coupling was oddly silent for one of Caliginous nature, but one look at the mutual hatred on their faces gave all the indication that this wasnt just a pitch fling. It was honest-to-gods kismesissitude pailing, and one that even Rose would be an absolute idiot to attempt to come between.

That being realized, she left as silently as she came, heading back to her work room to prep up some healing balm. She had a feeling they were both going to need it.


	25. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

After making sure Gamzee wasn't suffering from any lasting damage from the head trauma he had earlier, Rose had him accompany her back to John's room with the medicine, as well as the orb. Gamzee could smell the leftover pheromones from halfway down the hall, wrinkling his nose. "Why the motherfuck do I have to be here too?" he griped, still half-asleep and uncomfortable with the hormones.

Rose sighed, easing the door open. "A protective measure," she replied, quietly using her Grimdarks to keep the pair on the cot asleep. "I need to be sure this kismesissitude isn't affecting John negatively, and if Karkat gets possessive, I'll need you to try to calm him down."

Gamzee grimaced, rubbing his face. "Didn't work well last time," he muttered.

"Muscle him down, then." Rose crept up to the pair, noticing a plethora of scabbing scratches and bite marks on both bodies, though John's neck having more bruising and Karkat's thighs and back torn to shreds. Despite the Caliginous nature of their relationship, Karkat looked almost peaceful dozing on John's chest, and John had a hand on Karkat's scarred back, albeit having his claws pressing into the skin.

Rose quietly took out her medicines, gently lifting John's hand from Karkat's back and applying the medicine in its place, having Gamzee hand her things when indicated. "This is definitely going to scar," she murmured. "I'm amazed he hasn't bled out."

Gamzee growled softly in the back of his throat, glowering at John. Rose shushed him. "It's perfectly natural, Gamzee," she replied. "And it was fully reciprocal." She gestured to John's bruised throat before putting the medicine on Karkat's thighs, making sure she got all the deep wounds before turning her attention to John.

"Even in a Caliginous mindset, the Grimdark in John remained dormant," she murmured, mostly to herself. "So it's not violence itself that triggers it…"

"Can we hurry the motherfuck up?" Gamzee said, his hands flexing. "I don't like bein' near this motherfucker unless I gotta be."

"Just a few moments, Gamzee," Rose said, taking out the orb. "Hold this for a moment." She passed it to him, settling her fingertips on John's temples quietly.

Gamzee stared at the orb in his hands curiously, getting bored of it when it failed to do anything substantial, about to put it on the table when it rippled slightly in his hands. He blinked, eyes narrowing as he looked at it harder.

 _'…Gamzee…'_

Okay, that was a definite whisper he heard. The ripples became more defined as he stared into the orb harder, whispering reaching into his mind that seemed to be coming from the orb itself.

"Gamzee?"

Rose had tried to get his attention twice, looking over and seeing him staring into the orb. She dropped the cloth she was holding, shaking his shoulder. "Gamzee! Gamzee, give me the orb!" No response. "GAMZEE!"

Karkat jerked awake at the commotion, taking a few moments to realize several points, including him being naked on top of John, Rose and Gamzee in the room, and in full view of his indecency. "WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK!?" he screeched, falling off the cot and snatching a sheet to cover himself with. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!"

"NOT NOW!" Rose shouted back, trying to wrestle the orb from Gamzee. "GAMZEE, LET GO OF IT!" She reached up to cover his eyes to try to break the trance, only to be hurled back with a loud roar from Gamzee, crashing into John on the cot.

John had just started waking up from Karkat's screaming, getting an even ruder awakening when Rose crashed into him and knocked the wind out of him. He jerked up, sitting her up off him. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" he shouted, not even bothered by his nudity by this point.

Rose hoisted herself off of the bed and onto the floor. "Gamzee's got the orb! Something inside has a hold of him!" she replied. "If we can at LEAST cover his face to break the orb's hold on him, it'll be SOMETHING!"

John growled, snatching the spare sheet. "Gladly," he hissed, diving on Gamzee and tying the sheet around the taller troll's head, pulling it taut more tightly than was necessary. Gamzee screamed shrilly, letting go of the orb with one hand to swipe and claw behind him, jerking around to try to throw John off.

Rose hurried up to get the orb just as Dave kicked the door in, sword at the ready with everyone else behind him, wholly unprepared for the hot mess of what-the-fuck in front of him. "What the—"

Terezi pushed ahead of everyone, eyes going wide. "DON'T TOUCH HIM—" she shouted, just a second too late as Rose overshot her grab for the orb and instead grabbed Gamzee's arm.

A blast of what felt like the universe's strongest heartbeat pulsed through the block from the orb, throwing everyone back save for John, Rose, and Gamzee.

Dave threw his shattered shades aside, struggling to sit up against the throbs in the air that were pulsing from the trio in the middle of the block. He tried to call out to them, only for his voice to be lost in the pulses in the air.

John's eyes were blacker than a void, impossibly wide and staring out at nothing, black veins seeping from his eye sockets and over his face. Rose's glowing white eyes seemed brighter than a star, the light illuminating under her flesh. In their hold was Gamzee, face uncovered from the blast tearing the sheet away, his own eyes flickering between red and green so fast it was almost impossible to tell what the colors were, the orb in his hands expanding slowly and crackling with sparks.

Terezi, punched Dave in the shoulder to get his attention. "WE HAVE TO BREAK THEM APART!" she shouted, though her voice barely registered as a whisper. "HURRY!"

Dave could only nod in understanding, forcing himself to stand, feeling like he was moving through sludge, reaching out and grabbing hold of Rose—

 _"KARKAT! JUST STAY BACK, PLEASE, TRUST ME!"_

 _Karkat's nearly-broken body floating in a void next to Gamzee, Terezi, Vriska, and Kanaya's, looking hardly in shape to be alive, let alone reaching out for him—_

Karkat reached out for John, knowing instinctively that this was wrong and something had to be done. He lurched up and grabbed onto John's arm—

 _John pushing Karkat back with his wind, waving his arms in a circular motion, encasing the five trolls within a ball of compressed air._

 _"ROSE, DO IT NOW!"_

 _A bright flash—_

Dave and Karkat jerked Rose and John away from Gamzee in a quick motion as Terezi leapt over everyone to kick the orb out of Gamzee's hands, shove him down, and cover his face with her hands.

There was one last pulse from the orb before it stopped, the orb shrinking back to a nondescript black object. Rose's eyes stopped glowing, and she sat up straight, gasping and looking around wildly.

Karkat looked down at John, who was convulsing on the floor, eyes still black, screeching out something in an ungodly tone. John lurched up, claws extended for Karkat's throat, when Dave jerked Karkat out of John's reach as Rose hurried over and pressed her hands to his head, forcing the darkness back, though she seemed to have trouble this time.

Dave felt Karkat cling to him tightly as John continued to struggle and scream, occasionally getting a swipe in at Rose, who ignored the injuries he was inflicting to focus on pushing the darkness back. Finally, John went limp and the black veins around his eyes vanished.

There was no time for relief before Gamzee started to freak out, flailing Terezi off of him and backing into a corner, pupils almost slits and flicking around at everything like it would attack him at any moment. Rose reached out for him, and he let out an animalistic shriek, swiping out at her.

Dave let go of Karkat and pulled Rose back, glancing at everyone else. "Back into the hallway," he commanded, giving them a sharp hiss when they didn't move right away. "Rose, take John out, and for fuck's sake, put that goddamn orb someplace where nobody can get to it!" He waited until everyone had complied before crouching low to the floor.

"Shoosh," he crooned softly, shifting closer to Gamzee slowly, keeping his movements calm and hands in clear view. Gamzee growled softly, staring unblinking, but didn't swipe out. Dave slowly reached out and rested his hands on Gamzee's face, shooshing him softly until Gamzee's body unclenched and relaxed.

Dave glanced over across the room where Karkat was still sitting, him having been the only one to not leave the room. He could practically sense the turmoil and jealousy, and mentally sighed, resisting the urge to punch the wall and ruin his progress with Gamzee. Instead, he reached out with one hand and gestured for Karkat to come over, conveying to do so slowly.

Karkat was close to petulantly refusing and instead sitting where he was, but Dave's pleading look quickly changed his mind. He sighed, shifting closer, pausing twice when Gamzee started to growl, but eventually made his way over. Dave quietly pulled him over and had Karkat take his place. "What th—"

"He needs you, man," Dave said, his voice thick with an emotion Karkat couldn't place. "He needs something REAL." Karkat was about to ask what the fuck he was talking about when Gamzee's arms suddenly wound around him and pulled him close.

"…Karbro…" Gamzee whimpered, his voice almost pupa-like and broken, burying his face into Karkat's hair. Karkat froze, remaining still for a long few moments before hugging Gamzee back, clenching his eyes shut.

"…God…fucking….damn it…" he bit out with zero conviction in his voice. "…Shoosh, you damn clown…nothing's gonna fucking hurt you…" Gamzee just hugged him tighter and let out a soft, whining honk.

Dave leaned against the wall, running a shaking hand through his hair as he closed his eyes and calmed his own nerves. He was in no position to even TRY a Proteus in the state he was in, and was glad his gamble of having a past Pale flame of Gamzee's take over work out.

He figured he'd have to even out some complicated emotions between them later on, but right now, he wished he had someone of his own to help him through THIS.


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

It took a good while to calm Gamzee down enough for Dave and Karkat to move him, pulling him out of John's block and to his own. Karkat tugged him past the recuperacoon and over to the cloth pile on the floor, knowing Gamzee had a preference for it, tucking him around in a nest and staring at him for a moment.

This was the second time he'd seen Gamzee so frightened, and it almost hurt. Any residual feelings he ever had for the Subjugglator were being exploited to the max, just adding to the absolute fuckery that was his Romantic life. But he honestly couldn't help it. Gamzee's state had stirred up pity in Karkat, pity he thought had become contempt long ago.

He remembered all the hurt Gamzee put him through, only to find out Gamzee had been hurting too, and he had been a part of that pain. He really didn't end things with Gamzee, so much as replaced it without telling him, effectively leaving the Subjugglator all alone with no one to temper his mind.

Trolls without Quadrants were bad enough. It was worse when they were Highbloods. A Highblood Subjugglator with psychosis that would have been legendary had Alternia not been destroyed, without a Quadrant to his name, was just a recipe for disaster.

And come to find, he had not only been ignored, he had been abused by Vriska.

Karkat rubbed a hand over his face, trying to bury down the guilt. _'Don't do this to yourself, Vantas,'_ he thought. Gamzee himself said he made conscious mistakes and a lot of his misfortune was self-imposed.

 _'But if I had been there…'_

No. No, stop this. He was already neck-deep in shit conflicting over his feelings about Dave, he didn't need to rekindle a flame that wasn't even that strong to BEGIN with.

 _'Look at him, you idiot! He needs you!'_

Shut the fuck up, not doing this! The stupid assclown didn't—

"He needs you."

Karkat's head jerked up, having forgotten Dave was in the room too. He felt a flush of red come to his face. "What the fuck are you talking about—"

"Don't," Dave said, his uncovered red eyes pinning Karkat in place for a moment before turning to Gamzee. "…did you know that you are his greatest regret?" he said after a long pause. "Before betraying all of you to this English monster, before going on his killing spree, ruining his moiraillegience with you is his greatest regret. Even now, every time he looks at you, I can smell the Pale desire radiating off him so badly it almost gives me a headache." He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms, shifting his focus to the wall.

"I'm not saying you were wrong to break it off," he continued. "It was pretty one-sided from your standpoint, and in his mental condition, he needed a minder rather than a moirail. But you were literally ALL he had."

He reached up, massaging the bridge of his nose. "I've done what I can to try to dampen down his Pale feelings for you, but there ARE limits to what I can do. If something's real enough, there's only so much I can do about it. I cant get rid of TRUE Romantic feelings, any more than I can create them. I'm a master illusionist with Romance, nothing more." He pushed off from the wall.

"…Like I keep finding myself saying…I'm not your moirail. And I don't feel Pale for you. Those feelings are better concentrated to someone who needs them." With that, he left the room.

Karkat stared at the door, his jaw slack and heart twisting painfully in his chest. Unconsciously, his hand slipped up to press against the skin his heart was behind, his body shaking softly. His legs turned to jelly, and he collapsed on the floor next to the pile, his jaw moving as though trying to remember how to function and form words. Nothing came out. Nothing but a pathetic, high-pitched wail of pain the likes of which he'd never made in his life.

He was barely aware of hands grabbing him and pulling him into the pile until he felt them on his head, papping gently in a soothing manner to accompany the soft shooshing he heard. He let out another whine, burying his face into a bony shoulder, clinging tightly and sobbing quietly.

Gamzee pulled Karkat to him tighter, keeping up with the shooshpapping, letting Karkat cry through the heartbreak. _'Over a sweep too motherfuckin' late,'_ he thought bitterly. Still, he could play the part he had to, resolving to punch Dave's face in later, and not in a purely Romantic way either.

* * *

Dave was outside in the twilight before anyone was even considering waking up, swinging his sword in the air as he had been for the past two hours, trying to work himself to exhaustion. Unfortunately, it seemed all this fuckery concerning his own shitty Romantic life combined with that orb insanity was keeping his adrenaline up and active.

He swung the sword again, slicing off a section of tree on the border of the property, stepping back to take a breather when he heard someone walking up. He turned around to see Gamzee walking up, and was stunned to see he'd done so barefaced, making the displeasure on the Subjugglator's face all the more apparent.

"…Gamzee," he said, straightening and rolling his shoulders. "…What're you doing up so—" He was cut off when Gamzee flashstepped over and bashed him in the face with one of his clubs, sending him sprawling. He hissed in pain, spitting out a tooth. "WHAT THE FUCK—"

"Get up," Gamzee snarled, his purple eyes glowing with rage. Dave stayed in place, wiping blood from his face. The hesitation only made Gamzee snarl louder. "I SAID, GET THE MOTHERFUCK UP, MOTHERFUCKER!"

Dave jumped to his feet, clenching his sword. "The fuck is WRONG with you?" he demanded, immediately getting a completely platonic surge of hate from Gamzee, that being all the warning he needed to bring his sword up in time to block another blow from Gamzee's clubs, reflexively kicking Gamzee back from him. "Stop it! Tell me what's going on!"

Gamzee growled, displacing his clubs and instead equipping himself with a black warhammer with a long handle, spinning it like it weighed nothing, gathering up some momentum. "You know what you motherfuckin' did!" he snapped, darting forward and swinging the hammer hard, missing Dave by inches and instead shattering a nearby tree to splinters.

Dave shifted back, clenching his jaw tightly, getting an epiphany. "Fuck—Gamzee, just fucking LISTEN—!"

"FUCK THAT NOISE!" Gamzee shrieked, swinging the hammer again, using any missed follow-throughs as more momentum for another strike. "MOTHERFUCKER! YOU MESSIAHS-DAMNED MOTHERFUCKER! YOU KNEW HOW HE MOTHERFUCKIN' FELT ABOUT YOU!" He aimed a swing at Dave's head, and Dave dove to the ground, rolling out of the way before he was struck there, having to keep jumping and rolling to avoid the rapidly-placed strikes Gamzee was making with the hammer.

"STOP IT—" he shouted, ducking from another blow, trying to talk between strikes. "FUCK—GAMZEE, PLEASE—"

"BREAKIN' HIS HEART IS SOME MOTHERFUCKIN' SHIT I WILL NOT STAND FOR! NOT ANYMORE!" Gamzee swung the hammer low, and managed to clip Dave on the heel, making the smaller troll trip back on the ground. He swung back fast and brought it down hard, shattering the sword in Dave's hand on the ground.

Dave yelped when the shock of the blow made his hand go numb from holding onto the hilt when it was hit, jerking to sit up, but being pinned back with Gamzee's foot on his chest. With a precise swipe from the hammer, the shades on his face were knocked off, leaving him to stare up at the full rage in Gamzee's eyes.

Gamzee growled down at Dave, his hands holding the hammer's handle tightly, clenching and unclenching as though containing the urge to bash the mutant's head into pulp. "…Give me one motherfuckin' reason why I shouldn't motherfuckin' kill you," he hissed. "And you'd better make it motherfuckin' GOOD."

Dave swallowed hard, trying to keep calm, but unable to take any deep breaths from Gamzee's foot inhibiting his breathing. "I…" he stammered, his own hands clenching into the grass under him. Gamzee putting pressure on his foot with nearly enough pressure to snap a rib made him yelp. "I DON'T FEEL PALE FOR HIM!" he shouted.

Gamzee snarled. "WRONG answer, motherfucker!" he snarled, raising the hammer.

"GAMZEE!" Dave shouted, throwing his hands up, forcing out a heavy, almost suffocating emotion from his own heart. "Gamzee…..I don't…feel PALE for him…" he repeated, a heavier elaboration in his voice, suddenly feeling as drained as he had been trying to be. He went lax on the ground, turning his head to the side to let himself go boneless without his horns being bent wrong, feeling as though a hammer to the head was a pretty good option at the moment.

Gamzee felt the throb of emotion Dave had emitted, slowly lowering the hammer in realization. "…..oh…." was all he said as he displaced the hammer away, taking his foot off of Dave's chest.

Dave took a deep breath, only to let it out shakily as he clenched his eyes shut and covered his face with his hands. "…I didn't mean to hurt him," he said softly, his voice shaking. "…I…I swear I didn't…" Gamzee sat back on the ground, staring out at the woods.

"…I know what that's like," he replied. "And it don't motherfuckin' matter what you meant to do, or didn't mean to do." He pulled his knees up and buried his face in them. "…Karbro doesn't motherfuckin' deserve this."

Dave wiped his eyes, biting his lip. "…I know," he said. "…that's why I cant…I…I cant hurt him like that…understand, please…!" Against his own conscious will, his body curled up on itself like a sad wiggler. "SHIT…FUCK….I didn't MEAN for this to…!" He broke off, burying his face in his hands, his body shaking.

The two sat in silence as the last remains of light faded from the sky. By that time, Dave had reigned his emotions in and had sat up, staring out into the darkness of the woods with Gamzee.

"…Gamzee?"

"…yeah?"

"Don't tell Karkat."

"…sure thing, brother."


	27. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Gamzee and Dave sat outside until Rose called them in, sounding urgent. Everyone was convened in the sitting room, where Rose was standing and holding the orb. Next to him, Dave could feel Gamzee subtly shrink back, and put a calming hand on his arm.

"I was speaking to my patron," Rose said, turning the orb in her hands, "and she said that yesterday, a rift had opened in this orb, using myself, John, and Gamzee as conduits for the connection." She turned to Gamzee, looking apologetic, yet almost excited.

"Gamzee, do you feel the presence of your Mirthful Messiahs, even in this universe?"

Gamzee frowned at the odd question, but nodded. "Yeah," he replied. "I do." He tapped his head. "Always motherfuckin' feelin' 'em."

Rose nodded, as though having already known the answer, but wanted everyone to hear it. "As I thought. It would explain why you're also able to access your Jokerkind. It's because you are the 'string', so to speak, that works as a tether to your universe." She paused for a moment, then went on.

"…I believe that the gods that have chosen John and myself are the counterparts to your Mirthful Messiahs…and that is why the god that has a hold of John wants access to you…he could use you to escape to your universe and wreak havoc. And should he ever find a host as cruel as he is…"

"…Lord English, you mean," Terezi said, frowning contemplatively. "Seems like a real possibility there." She flexed her hands around her cane, staring in Rose's direction. "But contact has to be made in order to open up a rift so we can get back. The REAL question is, will Gamzee be able to handle having two more gods into his mind, with half of them clawing for control?"

Everyone's attention turned to Gamzee, who looked horribly uncomfortable with all eyes on him, his face still bare and showing all the pressure that had just been put on him. "…I don't know," he said after a few long moments.

"Maybe if you're more mentally prepared for it?" Jade said helpfully. "Not to mention, that orb was growing pretty fast….you probably wont have to hold it for long."

"This is true," Rose conceded. "But you'll have to be PERFECTLY neutral, Gamzee. You cant cave to either side, or the tether will be snapped. I don't want to know what will happen if you do."

"You really don't," Terezi said cryptically, her hands flexing around her cane. Her jaw tightened when attention was turned to her. "I'm not elaborating," she said firmly. "But I WILL say this. Gamzee's decision to do this will split in a fifty-fifty chance of this succeeding or failing, with no favorable side. That's a gamble we're ALL going to be taking."

She looked up. "As of now, we have two options. The first is trying this and going home to our universe, and along with that comes the fifty-fifty gamble. The second choice is scrapping this entirely, and staying here, playing it safe and keeping with a sure thing." She paused, weighing in on the silence. "…I, for one, gamble on going home."

More silence.

"…I vote going home," Vriska said firmly. "Never liked having the cushy life."

Kanaya let out a sigh. "…I vote going home as well," she said. "We started that game. We might as well finish it." The three of them turned to Karkat, who had remained silent and not looking at anyone. "…Karkat?"

Karkat's jaw visibly flexed, the grinding of his teeth almost audible. Finally, he gave a curt nod. "…home," was all he said, his voice thick with an unidentifiable emotion. Next to her, Jade saw John flinch slightly, and reached over to hold his hand.

"That's our vote," Terezi said, looking in Gamzee's direction. "But the call is entirely yours, Gamzee. It's YOUR mind that's on the line, after all."

Gamzee glanced around at everyone for a moment before staring down at his own hands, flexing them for a moment. "…I'll motherfuckin' do it," he finally said firmly. "I'll make motherfuckin' SURE it works out."

* * *

Rose kept John and Gamzee in her work room, saying that they at least needed to be in the same vicinity in order to get a feel of each other's aura patterns. It still took Gamzee at least three pills to settle down enough to focus on keeping a neutral mindset.

John was just as uncomfortable, but for an entirely different reason. Being around Gamzee made that entity attached to him bubble to the surface more and more, and John was having a hard enough time himself keeping calm and in control. It was primarily his constant state of guilt at having attacked Gamzee more than once that kept that lid firmly shut. He never liked violence, and he didn't want to go down that path now.

Rose finally got to a point where both of the males were calmed down, and finally retreated to her own mindscape to meet with her patron.

"It's really happening," she said, keeping a portion of her focus on the outside of her mindscape, just in case. "…I didn't expect it to be so soon."

" _ **Better sooner than later,"**_ her patron replied, sounding almost grim. _**"They need to return to what awaits them in their universe before they become too attached to this world. The roots to their powers will fade with time, and that is something they are running out of."**_

"…I don't know if Gamzee is ready, though," Rose said, hugging her knees. "His mind is so fragile…"

" _ **Yes, but his determination and will is strong, when it is invoked. For the first time in his life, he feels sane and in control, and will fight to keep that tether strong, even at the cost of his own life."**_

"That's something else I'm afraid of. I don't want him to be ruined because of this."

" _ **You let me worry about that."**_

Rose looked up, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked.

There was silence from the god for a few moments. _**"…When the time to open the rift comes, I will tell you my name,"**_ they said. _**"But you must be prepared. My name will invoke the name of the creature that has clung to John, and then HE will be fully awakened. But it MUST happen for this to work. And it will be up to Gamzee to handle the weight of essentially two sides of the same godly coin tearing a hole between dimensions."**_

"…That's….a little bit more than what I was anticipating," Rose said, sounding worried. "Can he even handle something like that?"

" _ **It is within his capabilities, yes."**_

Rose sighed, running a hand through her hair. "…How soon is soon enough?" she asked.

" _ **Three days. No more."**_

A soft explicative left Rose's lips. "…hardly enough time," she said quietly. "But what must be done, must be done."

" _ **Put faith in me, my Rose, and faith in Gamzee. All will be well."**_

* * *

Karkat had once again gone outside to swing around his sickle and demolish what was left of Rose's foliage, no one really knowing what set him off this time. Kanaya had attempted to go out and check, only to be snarled at and demanded to be left alone.

Dave sighed, looking out the window as he sipped a drink, quelling back the urge to hurry out and hug the little ball of rage until he simmered down. He had a feeling his presence would be most unwelcome by this point, and he couldn't blame Karkat a bit.

Shit, he'd really screwed up this time. Karkat was already an overly-emotional wreck with more Quadrant issues than even a Proteus could fix, and he had to go and cause confusion with putting him with Gamzee, and then completely shatter his feelings by making that completely insensitive statement. He would have probably done less damage by just ADMITTING that—

"Are you going to tell him, or do I have to do it for you?"

Dave would deny forever that he almost shrieked as his drink can went airborne. Terezi deftly reached out and grabbed it before it hit the counter, arching a brow. "Wow. So cool. Really." She proceeded to knock back what was left in the can before leaning against the counter. "Still doesn't answer my question."

Dave quickly schooled his features back to default, ignoring the fact that she couldn't see it anyway. "…Don't know what you're talking about," he replied stiffly.

Terezi gave him her best 'bitch, please' look before whacking him in the head with her cane. "Don't give me that shit, Dave," she said, her voice a bit testy. "Not now, when we're so close to ending all of this. Because it's not just Karkat who's going to end up a wreck because of your inability to actually FEEL something for once."

She paused, then reached up and snatched his shades off, ignoring his yelp of protest as she did the same to herself. "Dave, if you don't tell Karkat, it's going to be the biggest mistake of your life." Her eyes pinned to his in an eerie semblance of focus and contact. "…He's had enough Quadrant failures in his life. He feels himself unpitiable…in MY Dave's terms, unlovable. All the Flush crushes he feels, he never thought anyone would have Flushed feelings for him."

Dave scowled down at the floor. "…And confessing to him NOW, only to never see me again? THAT would be better?"

"Yes."

The complete sincerity in her response made him look up. Terezi's face was serious and almost pleading. "'Yes'? Are you even serious?"

"As a heart attack." She sighed, rubbing her temples. "…It's getting harder and harder to see things happen. But I DO know that the first time I saw you and Karkat laughing in the sitting block, just enjoying each other's company, I could See something…good. For BOTH of you. It's almost a memory now…I cant even recall things I once Saw so clearly. But I KNOW that telling Karkat how you feel is a GOOD thing! For you AND him!"

Dave remained silent for a long moment before turning his attention back out the window, watching Karkat forego his scythe and instead punch at a tree. "…You didn't see his face when I told him his Pale feelings weren't reciprocated," he replied quietly. "If I tell him I'm Flushed for him, and he's mere days away from leaving, how damaged do you think that would make him?"

Terezi sighed, putting her shades back on. "You're hopeless," she replied quietly. "You'd rather suffer than feel anything else. A match made in the Dark Carnival, truly." She tossed his shades onto the counter and headed out.

Dave reached over and picked the shades back up, putting them back onto his face as he watched Gamzee rush outside and start fretting over Karkat's bleeding hands, wishing not for the first time that it was him that was doing it.


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

Karkat found himself losing track of the hours, and even the days, as his brain refused to shut itself off from the constant barrage of vacillating emotions and numbness. He took to his comforting default of anger to deal with the vacillations, but even that was taken to extremes, and he kept finding himself hurt and bleeding after coming down from his anger highs.

What was even (worse?) more confusing was waiting for him at the end of the tantrums, and even bringing him down from them, was Gamzee.

If the situation wasn't so entirely ironically canon, Karkat would've sworn he was in another universe, one where Gamzee was an attentive and worried moirail who handled him with all the care and delicacy one would expect from a perfect moiraillegience. But lo and behold, there he was now, every time he hurt himself, being shooshpapped into a calmer state, his injuries fretted over, and all the soothing words and cuddles he could have ever wanted.

On the one hand, Karkat was inwardly seething, not making it easy at all for Gamzee to keep up this Pale charade. Old wounds kept getting prodded at, his old grudge that was held for always being the giver and never the receiver in their old relationship blossoming outward in an ugly, stinking bloom. He was pretty sure he even had a few outbursts of _'WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU BACK THEN WHEN I NEEDED YOU!?'_ , but that could have just as well been a scenario he always wanted to play out in his head.

On the other hand, he felt that it was exactly what he was craving. He never made it easy for Gamzee to get him into a calm state, but Jeegus fucking Christ, once Gamzee's persistence paid off, he felt so safe and secure for those brief hours until Gamzee had to leave and work out this whole getting-back-home thing. It only added to the painful game of tug-of-war on his emotions when that safe feeling crumbled and the anger, the heartbreak, the AGONY returned.

Getting his anger out with a weapon in his hand was the quickest way to tire himself out, but he didn't WANT to be tired! He WANTED this PAIN to just FUCKING GO AWAY! He slashed at anything that hadn't been cut away already, his rage simmering up into his brain until a twig snapped against his cheek and completely set him off. He threw his scythe aside and instead began to assault the tree with his fists until they were as red as the mist of anger in his eyes.

No, wait. Those were tears.

He stopped punching the tree and instead stood there, red dripping from his eyes and hands, scarcely aware that he had attracted attention until Gamzee was in front of him, taking his hands and looking them over.

"Why you gotta be motherfuckin' hurtin' yourself like this, Karbro?" Gamzee said, sounding like seeing Karkat in pain was physically hurting him as well. Karkat's jaw clenched tight, almost petulantly pulling his hands back to lower to his sides.

Gamzee reached out and took them again, easily but gently pulling them up past Karkat's resistance, looking them over again, seeing a couple of knuckle bones exposed past the skin and blood. He sighed, letting go of one of Karkat's hands, turning for the hive. "Let's get you fixed the motherfuck up," he said quietly, taking a few steps toward the hive, frowning when Karkat gave him more resistance, the smaller troll practically digging his heels into the ground to keep from being moved.

"Karbro," Gamzee said, tugging on Karkat's arm again. Karkat glowered at him, a ring of bright red around the dark grey flashing defiantly. _'You're not my fucking moirail!'_ those eyes seemed to scream, the look being both defiant and challenging. Gamzee's own eyes narrowed. "Karkat," he began again, standing up to full height. "We're getting' you motherfuckin' fixed up. Come on."

Karkat's lips pulled back into a snarl, baring teeth, his fists clenching, and Gamzee had less than a second to jerk to the side before Karkat landed a blow to the ribs. Gamzee ducked down, tucked his arm around Karkat's middle, and hoisted him up over his shoulder, using his free hand to hold Karkat's legs so he wouldn't be kicked.

He headed back to the hive with Karkat flailing and screaming like a wild grub, his face oddly stony as Karkat clawed holes into the back of his shirt and managed to reach far enough back to tug at his hair, ignoring the looks everyone were giving them, going into his respiteblock, shutting the door, then dropping Karkat into the recuperacoon.

Karkat yelped and flailed, splashing the medicinal slime everywhere before it finally took hold with its narcotic effects, numbing his pain, both physical and mental. He sat there in the recuperacoon for several long minutes, panting and shaking as he came down from his latest outburst, finally leaning back and staring up at the ceiling.

Gamzee remained silent as he observed, sitting on the cloth pile in the corner until Karkat was sufficiently calmed down. "…You've gotta stop this shit," he finally said, getting Karkat's attention. "I aint gonna motherfuckin' abide by it anymore. I don't give a motherfuck if I gotta strap you to my back an' carry you with me, you're not DOIN' this shit anymore! Y'hear me, Karkat?"

He stood up, walking over to the recuperacoon and reached in, pulling Karkat out and hugging him tightly, carrying him back to the pile and sitting back. Karkat's body curled up like a grub's, but made no other response.

Gamzee quietly papped Karkat's head, contemplating going out to Dave and telling him that he couldn't keep doing this, keeping Dave's secret from Karkat. He contemplated going to Rose and saying he changed his mind, that he wanted everyone to stay, so Dave wouldn't NEED to choose to keep it a secret…that maybe something could be worked out somehow. He even contemplated the idea that maybe, if an understanding could be made, he could convince Karkat to stay so he could be with Dave…

That last one tugged painfully at his heart, the very thought of having to leave the Flushest of his crushes behind a whole universe away being almost too painful to bear. But seeing his most precious of Diamonds in this state was even worse.

Karkat was only responding to his Pale gestures because of his vulnerability. If he had a Flushed relationship with Dave, Gamzee wouldn't be needed anymore. He'd be happy. And Gamzee wanted that for Karkat. Karkat deserved happiness.

He leaned back on the pile, petting Karkat's head and back, looking up when Rose poked her head in quietly.

"Gamzee, we need to work on—"

"No," Gamzee said firmly, not even pausing his petting on Karkat's hair. Rose blinked.

"What?"

"I said no. Karbro needs me."

Rose sighed. "Gamzee, I understand, I really do…but we need to make sure you're ready for this—"

"I'm as ready as I'm ever gonna motherfuckin' be," Gamzee said, looking back up at her. "You heard Terezi. It's fifty-fifty either way. I'm gonna make motherfuckin' sure it works." He looked back down at Karkat, his jaw twitching. "…But…do me a motherfuckin' favor, Rosesis…if Karbro decides he doesn't wanna motherfuckin' leave, take care of him."

"…Gamzee, what are you talking about? Why would he—"

"Ask Dave." He turned his attention fully back to Karkat, giving Rose his subtle dismissal.

Rose saw no point in arguing, closing the door and walking off down the hall, almost colliding with Dave en route. "…Dave, Gamzee said—"

"—I gotta talk to Karkat." He paused. "…Right. Yeah." He rubbed his eyes under the shades. Rose, glanced between him and Gamzee's block door.

"…Gamzee said something odd," she said quietly. "…he…asked me if Karkat decided he wanted to stay behind, to take care of him." She saw Dave's complexion pale. "…Dave? Why would…" She paused. "…Oh." Dave's hands began flexing before he turned on heel. "Dave, it's okay—!"

"NO!" Dave snapped, his voice remaining deceptively quiet. "NOTHING…is OKAY about this! I CANT ask Karkat to do something like this! I'm NOT being a goddamn martyr or anything, I'm just NOT going to be letting him be forced to make a decision like that!" He let out a humorless laugh. "Shit, Rose…I don't even know if he's Flushed for ME! Or if he is, if he's not just projecting his feelings for HIS Dave on ME! It's not fair to EITHER of us!"

Rose wrung her hands quietly before reaching out and hugging him tightly. Dave tensed up before his shoulders dropped, letting out a heavy sigh as she quietly petted his back. "Shoosh," she said quietly, keeping her voice soothing. "…You're right. It's NOT fair. It's completely unfair that your first Flush crush is someone who shouldn't even be here, and has to leave….even worse that he's your match in practically every way. But Dave…I KNOW that things will work out. Life isn't so cruel that they wouldn't give you a matesprit that belongs to the same universe as you. So…maybe this was some way of saying you're CAPABLE of feeling it when it happens."

Dave made a soft whining sound, giving the indication that it was such an unfair notion, if not a hoofbeastshit one. She smiled, hugging him tighter. "…I know you feel your chance at a moiraillegience with me fell apart when I took responsibility for John, and you've been carrying that hurt with you…but I want you to know that it wasn't a chance wasted. I felt the same way." She leaned back, kissing his cheek. "You're not an unfeeling mutant, Dave. You're capable of so much more than you think."

She squeezed his hands quietly. "…You're not unpitiable, and neither is Karkat. I think you both need to realize that." She let go of his hands, walking back to her workroom, leaving Dave to his own thoughts.

Dave took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling twin trails of red run down his face. He reached up and wiped them away, feeling worse, yet a whole lot better at the same time.


	29. Chapter 28

_**Holy cow, guys, I think I might be close to finishing this! Will wonders never cease?**_

* * *

 **Chapter 28**

Rose woke everyone up before the sun set the next day with urgency in her voice. "It has to be tonight," she said, looking just as nervous as everyone else. "There's no more time for this."

Nobody really felt all that sleepy anyway, and everyone was ready to go in no time flat. Rose brought only the orb with her, and led the way out of the hive and into the woods, wanting a wide space to do this in case the rift got big enough to do some damage to the surrounding area.

The canopy of trees was thick enough to block out the last few hours of sunlight, and the walk was solemn and quiet. No one really knew what to say, how to say it, or if it would do any good to give words of encouragement or sympathy. Like Terezi said, the odds of this working were 50-50, and no amount of condolences would change that.

Jade had her hand clasped in John's for the whole walk, quietly keeping him calm, knowing that the job he hasn't wasn't going to be a pleasant one. John seemed to appreciate the gesture, squeezing her hand every dozen steps or so, though his face remained pale and blank.

Dave walked a pace behind everyone else, his eyes flicking to Karkat every so often, fighting back the urge to run up, hug the little ball of anger, and tell him everything. To beg him to stay, to say it was alright if he DIDN'T want to stay….ANYTHING. But he did nothing.

Gamzee glanced back at Dave every so often, wanting so badly for one of them to just DO something, but couldn't bring himself to stop everything and fix this one Quadrant fuck-all. He kept his arm around Karkat's shoulders, mentally bracing himself for his role in going home, having already taken two of the pills, feeling more prepared than he was going to be.

After two hours of walking, the sun began to set, and Rose came across a valley away from any civilization or bystanders that could be hurt. She set her bag down and took out the cloth-covered orb. "…I just wanted all of you to know," she addressed the Alternians, "that it was an honor and a pleasure to know you. And had we not discovered this way to take you home…we would've welcomed you to stay forever."

She paused, wiping a tear from her eye. "…You're all such good friends to me…and although the odds are almost nonexistent, I would hope we meet again someday."

No one was capable of pretending they weren't touched, because they all felt the same way, to some degree. Dave had to turn away to make sure his tears weren't visible, trying SO damn hard not to lose his cool.

Rose took a deep breath and let it out. "John, Gamzee," she said, looking up. "…Let's do this."

John swallowed hard and walked over, pausing for only half a step when he passed by Karkat, glancing back for a brief second with a glint of regret in his eye for having to give up such a fantastic kismesis.

If Karkat noticed, he gave no indication, though Gamzee saw the look and mentally sighed, stepping up before pausing and turning back. "Karbro, do you want to stay?"

Everyone went silent. Karkat stared at Gamzee like he was crazy. "…What the absolute FUCK are you talking about!?" he nearly shouted. "You're saying that shit NOW!? OF ALL TIMES!? Why the FUCK would WE want to—"

"Not all of us, Karbro," Gamzee cut in. "Just you." He wrung his hands tightly. "…You…you got Quadrants here, Karkat. An' potential Quadrants. You always said you didn't feel like you motherfuckin' belonged back in our world…but…you got your motherfuckin' belonging HERE…right?"

Next to her, Rose saw John's face have a flicker of hope, and apart from the others, Dave was looking barely able to contain himself. Karkat himself looked torn between considering it, and slapping the paint right off of Gamzee's face for suggesting it.

"…you can do it if you want, Karkat," Terezi said, breaking the very awkward silence. "We wont blame you, or try to stop you, or anything. Gamzee's right. You can be happy here. Just like you can be happy in our world. It's up to you."

Karkat's clenched fists shook, blood dripping from the claw wounds on his palms. "…Gamzee…" he said softly, "go over to Rose…pick up that goddamn fucking orb…and take us home before I shove my fist so far down your throat you'll be shitting claws for a perigree."

Gamzee sighed, glancing at Dave in a 'now or never' look, then walked over to Rose, holding out his hands. "Let's motherfuckin' do this, then," he said.

Rose nodded. "Be strong, Gamzee," she said, putting the orb in his hands and turning to John. John nodded, putting his hand on one of Gamzee's shoulders as Rose did the same to his other. "When the rift is big enough, you just need to jump in," Rose told the others. "Don't hesitate. Go for the light, and DON'T LOOK BACK."

The Alternians all nodded, looking scared and anticipating. Rose took a deep breath and pulled the cloth off of the orb, clenching her hand into Gamzee's shoulder, closing her eyes and pulling herself into her mindscape. _'It's now or never, my patron,'_ she thought.

There was silence as the orb in Gamzee's hands began to ripple, and then—

" _ **My name…is Calliope."**_

An agonizing burst of light went off in Rose's head the likes of which she never felt before, and next to her, John almost doubled over as an explosion that could only be described as black light jolted through him, a loud, horrible voice laughing in his head that sounded like being cut with razors and bludgeoned with rocks at the same time.

" _ **CALIBORN."**_

Between them, Gamzee's hands clenched into the orb, his eyes beginning to flash red and green, slowly at first, and then in a flash that was headache-inducing. The orb began to crackle and flash, and then began expanding, looking less like an orb and more like a hole in space. Once it reached the size of an average recuperacoon, it trembled and ceased expanding.

"GUYS, WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" Terezi shouted. "HURRY!" She took a running start, jumping right into the black hole and vanished.

"SHIT, TEREZI—!" Vriska took off after her, vanishing too.

Kanaya turned to Karkat. "Let's go, Karkat!" she said, hurrying over and diving through.

Karkat's legs shook as he headed for the hole, looking terrified and uncertain. "I…I don't…" He swallowed hard, looking between John and Gamzee, then back at Dave. "…I don't know…!"

Dave bit his lip hard, glancing over at Gamzee, who was struggling hard to maintain keeping the orb open, purple blood dripping from his nose, his shoulders bleeding from John and Rose's claws being embedded into them. He swore loudly, racing up to Karkat, and grabbing him up.

"GO!" he shouted, "AND DON'T LOOK BACK!" He threw Karkat into the hole, choking back a sob as his fellow mutant vanished from sight, looking back up to Gamzee. "GAMZEE, GO!"

Gamzee's hands twitched and flexed hard, his eyes fluttering like they were unable to close, leaning in closer as though to let himself fall into the hole when John's hand clenched into his shoulder so tightly Dave could hear snapping of bone. John's head rose up, his eyes nothing but black void, a horrifying voice coming from his mouth.

" _ **YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE."**_

* * *

The flash of light was brighter than the whitest star, blinding everyone for a split second, but that second was all that was needed for Dave and Jade to grab John and Rose, pulling them into a small 'pocket' of non-space they created on the fly, though knowing it was just a matter of time before Lord English would find them.

John hugged his knees, resting his forehead against them to regain a proper breathing pattern as Rose laid back to get her head to stop spinning. Dave and Jade leaned against each other, both having throbbing headaches from having to perform two time-space anomalies back-to-back.

"…did it work…?" John asked, recovering first. "…the others…did we…?"

Rose rubbed her eyes, tearing up. "…I hope so," she replied softly. "…I just…we did what I thought was best…what I Saw…" She glanced over at the exhausted pair in front of her. "…I cant See them now…I don't know anything…" She let out a soft sob. "…if I miscalculated…if I was wrong…Kanaya…!" She put her hands over her mouth.

Dave jerked his shades off, crushing them in his hand, burying his face in his arms, nobody having to hear him say anything to know that he was thinking the same of Karkat. "…god…fucking DAMN it…!" he choked out, shaking. Jade quietly put her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"…It'll be okay…" she said, sniffling. "…We…we just have to believe it's okay!" She burst into tears too.

John swallowed hard, looking at his crying friends, feeling his own eyes mist up. He wound the tail of his hood around himself like a scarf, burying his face into it. _'They have to be okay,'_ he kept repeating to himself. _'They HAVE to be…they—"_

A violent shudder in their time-space pocket snapped them out of their woe, and Dave jumped to his feet, grabbing his sword. "He found us," he stated, the sword shaking slightly in his hand from both fear and the exhaustion he was feeling. The other three stood up alongside him, though none looked ready to face Lord English again.

Rose's legs were visibly shaking from trying to stand upright in spite of her dizziness, and Jade looked ready to pass out again. John resorted to levitating, quietly and subtly feeding air into them to keep their heads clear and panic responses down.

"…Moment of truth, guys," John said, exhaling heavily. "If we lose…see you in the dream bubble."

Dave let out a bark of humorless laughter. "And if he comes and destroys them?" he said, narrowing his red eyes at the wall of the pocket.

"Then I'll see you in nonexistence, asshat, don't test me on this."

Jade sniffled softly, wiping her eyes dry. "You're the best friends I ever had," she said, flexing her hands. "I can only promise you a couple seconds to displace you—"

"Fuck that noise, we're not leaving you to face him alone!" Dave snapped, gripping his sword tighter when a more violent shake rocked their pocket. "We do this together, or not at all!"

John nodded, using his power to steady Rose up. "What's the view, Rose?" he asked. "It's your call."

Rose closed her eyes, rubbing her temples lightly. "…as soon as he tears this pocket open, we need ten seconds," she said.

"Ten seconds to what?" Jade asked, keeping her eyes on the pocket, which was beginning to tear.

"Just ten seconds, that's all I know!"

"I've got your ten seconds," Dave said. "Jade, keep displacing my ass. It doesn't matter if I get a hit on him, as long as I've got those ten seconds. John, do the Windy Thing. Rose, try to blind his billiard ass."

"Sounds like a plan," John said, summoning up his Warhammer of Zillyhoo. "But I'm not waiting for him to tear it open. Everyone hold on tight!"

"What the hell are you going to dOOOOOOHOLYFUCK—"

Before the pocket was ripped open, John summoned up his wind with the force of a bullet, launching them all out of the pocket, Warhammer first, managing to break them out and nail Lord English in the face in one go, giving just the split-second distraction needed to begin.

 **10—9—8—**

Dave kicked off from the solid-feeling wall of wind under him, diving for English, swinging his sword back in a show of attacking.

 **7—6—5—**

At the VERY last possible moment before English blasted him away, Jade displaced Dave out of that point in space as John zapped above English's head and slammed his Warhammer as hard as he could onto English's skull.

 **4—3—**

English shot a hand up and snatched John right out of the air, using him as a shield against a bright flash of light from Rose, clenching his hand around John's body tightly.

 **2—**

John let out a strangled scream as something cracked, feeling as though his own Aspect was leaving his body.

" _ **IDIOT BOY!"**_ Lord English snarled. _**"YOU WILL GO FIRST!"**_

 **1**

John felt English squeeze his body again, yelling in agony while at the same time there was another flash of light, but not coming from Rose. Everyone turned and saw a hole in space open, and five trolls come flying out.

Like she had been anticipating it, Vriska went God Tier the moment she was out and dashed forward, using everyone's combined confusion to steal every ounce of luck she could before equipping herself with the cutlass Troll Jade gave her, slicing right through the wrist of the hand that was clenched around John.

"HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THAT BECAUSE I DOUBT IT'LL HAPPEN AGAIN!" she shouted, grabbing John up and dashing toward Jade. "JADE, SEND HIM TO COORDINATES 9282-391!"

Jade stared for only a moment more before displacing English as told, giving them less than a minute to recover before he would return from the center of a red giant star. "It worked!" she shouted, hurrying over to look at John.

John had his arms around his middle, struggling to breathe. "Shit, I think he broke some ribs," Vriska muttered. "Cant you fix that shit?"

"Never really tried before," Jade admitted, chewing her lip as everyone crowded around. "This is really more of a Life player, or a Sylph's job, but Kanaya hasn't God Tiered…"

"Just try, Jade," Kanaya said. "We only have moments before we have to do this again—" She felt the wind be knocked out of her when Rose tackled her and hugged her tightly. "Rose…"

"If we die, we're not dying in separate universes!" Rose sobbed, hugging Kanaya tighter. Kanaya hugged her back just as tightly, petting her head quietly.

Jade uncrossed John's arms and ghosted her fingertips over his abdomen, instinctively finding the space of the cracks in his ribs and fusing them back together, though not unpainfully. John keened in pain from having them moved at all, and Dave barely had time to jerk Karkat back before the troll could sink his claws into Jade's face.

"Karkat, bro, calm down!" he said, holding Karkat's arms tightly. "She's just helping!" He curled his arms around Karkat's shoulders, burying his face in Karkat's hair, not caring what it looked like. "Stay with me, man…"

Karkat settled down, feeling the familiar sensation of Dave—HIS Dave—near him, his shoulders relaxing. His mind became clear—he was back in his universe. His moirail was HERE. John WASN'T his kismesis.

He didn't know if he should be more ecstatic or humiliated.

John sat up, rubbing his chest, giving Karkat a weak but happy smile. "Missed you too, Karkat," he said, beaming despite Karkat's dark red blushing and sputtering before going serious. "Glad you're all back, but I'm PRETTY sure we just shook the bee's nest and he's just going to come back more pissed off than before."

"No shit, Terezi said before pausing, looking around. "…guys, where's Gamzee?"

"Better question—why do we fucking CARE?" Dave replied testily.

"Long story, cant tell it all now, but Gamzee's sane, and is the reason we're able to come back," Kanaya replied.

"Fucked as it is to say, I was hoping he'd make it through alright," Vriska muttered, frowning at the hole in space that was still lingering. "…And why hasn't that hole closed?"

"…Oh fuck, why hasn't the fucking hole closed?" Karkat said, paling. "If he gets into that world, he could—" He cut off with a yelp when English, sans a hand, reappeared above them.

" _ **Please, Vantas, by all means, go on. GIVE ME SOME IDEAS."**_

Everyone was blown back with a blast of energy, with only John throwing up a wall of formed air keeping anyone from being disintegrated, though they were blasted back anyway. Terezi jerked up.

"DEFEND THAT PORTAL!" she shouted. "WE CANT LET HIM GET INSIDE—"

"WAIT!" Rose called out over Terezi. "Just wait!" She had that miles-away look in her eyes that indicated she was Seeing something. "…we need to do this RIGHT. We need to wait."

"FOR WH—" Karkat was cut off when English clawed over John's wall of air and broke it up completely. Jade yelped, barely managing to displace everyone before they were hit.

Rose stood up. "We need to do what we did with you all," she said. Next to her, Jade let out a distressed whine.

"I'm running on fumes as we speak, Rose!" she said, indeed looking close to fainting. "And even if we were at full strength, it would take a LOT…and I mean, a LOT more to do that to a Lord!"

"Exactly!" Rose said. "THAT'S why we have to wait!"

Karkat let out a loud, agonized shriek of confusion and anger. "WAIT FOR WHAT, LALAONDE!?"

Before Rose could say, another voice behind them spoke up.

"WHOA, WHAT THE FUCK AM I WEARING, ARE THESE FUCKING PAJAMAS!?"

Rose smiled. "For reinforcements."


	30. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

Gamzee barely registered the threatening voice before he felt something try to literally tear into his mind. He shrieked loudly, letting go of the orb, which hovered in the air without growing or shrinking. John grabbed Gamzee's head, digging his claws into the scalp as though to literally tear Gamzee's head apart to get inside.

 _ **"OPEN UP YOUR MIND, YOU PATHETIC WORM!"**_ he screeched, pinning Gamzee to the ground. Gamzee flailed, starting to lose the neutrality in his mind as fear took over, staring into the endless abyss that were once John's eyes—and then seeing something else entirely before everything went numb and black.

Dave rushed over and tackled John off of Gamzee. "STOP IT, JOHN!" he shouted, pinning him back. "FIGHT IT!"

John struggled against Dave, opening his eyes and showing they were back to his normal blue. "…Dave, what are you doing?" he demanded. "Get off me!"

Dave sat up. "You're okay…" he muttered. "But…that thing was—" He was cut off by a scream from Gamzee, looking over and seeing him thrashing on the ground, clawing at his head and bleeding black from the eyes. "FUCK—ROSE!" He ran up to Rose, who seemed to be in a trance of some kind, shaking her. "ROSE, WAKE THE FUCK UP! THAT THING IS IN GAMZEE NOW! ROSE!"

Rose's hands lifted and touched his head, and he felt a burst of light and a firm softness in his mind.

 _ **"All will be well, Dave. Be prepared to help your friends."**_

Dave let go of Rose's shoulders, stepping back as Rose walked over to Gamzee and knelt down, leaning her forehead against Gamzee's. There was a pulse that rippled through the air, and then silence.

Jade crept over, shaking at everyone's shoulders. "…John? Dave? Rose, Gamzee….wake up!" She glanced back at the hole in the air. "…it's still open! We need to close it!"

Dave sat up, rubbing his head. "…Did I just have a Grimdark god speak to my brain…?" he groaned. "How the shit do you handle that, Rose…?" He looked over, seeing Rose still kneeling over Gamzee, her shoulders shaking. "…Rose…?"

"…S…she's gone…" Rose stammered, sniffling, looking up. Dave almost reeled back when he saw that her skin had gone from dark grey to a lighter, more common shade. "She's gone now…"

"What? Why?" Dave asked.

"GUYS!" Jade shouted. "THE HOLE IS STILL OPEN! HOW DO WE CLOSE IT!?"

Rose wiped her eyes, standing up and walking to it, only to be pulled back by John. "Whoa, Rose, what are you doing?" John demanded.

"We have to," Rose replied. "I don't know HOW…but I think I SAW something…that we HAVE to go in there."

"Rose, it was hard enough finding a way to get them back there, we have no idea how we'll be able to—"

"We will. Trust me, John." She turned to Jade and Dave, who were helping Gamzee up. "All of us have to go. Our friends need us."

Dave recalled what that voice had said in his head, tightening his grip on Gamzee. "…What the hell, not like I've got anything else planned today," he muttered, hoisting Gamzee's arm around his shoulders, hearing him groan. "C'mon, Makara, you're going home."

"….motherfuckin' finally…" Gamzee mumbled, stumbling along with him.

John glanced at the black hole, chewing his lip for a moment. "Alright then," he said. "If we get stuck, I blame you." He took Jade's hand, taking a deep breath before jumping in. Rose stood on Gamzee's other side, giving Dave a brave smile before jumping in with them both.

Dave never really went on a drug trip, but he was PRETTY sure that being hurled through a tunnel of time and space at speeds that should've torn his skin from his bones came pretty damn close. He saw a prick of light up ahead that grew rapidly until he was almost blinded, and then the rushing feeling stopped, though not before what felt like a flash of static and fire rush over his skin.

His first initial reaction was nausea, the second was—WHY COULD HE SENSE ALL OF THESE TIME ANOMALIES ALL AT ONCE!?. He opened his eyes and looked around before looking down at his body, seeing various shades of red.

"WHOA, WHAT THE FUCK AM I WEARING, ARE THESE FUCKING PAJAMAS!?" He patted at his arms and chest, seeing a bright red symbol in the shape of a gear on the front of his…WERE these pajamas? What even the fuck?!

He turned to Rose to ask if this was a universe of random outfit changes, but paused when he saw she was wearing different clothes as well, a gold and orange number that was completely different than the normal black she always wore, being a long slitted dress with leggings underneath, complete with a hood.

Jade was looking herself over, wearing a black dress with a hood that made space for her horns, and John was wearing the most pajama-like of the bunch in blue, the symbol on his own chest resembling his horns.

"…Can we freak out?" John said shakily, staring past everyone else. "It's okay to freak out, right?" Dave turned to John's line of sight, and felt like freaking out himself when he saw four others staring back at them, looking almost identical, safe for different skin and no horns.

"…you gotta be fucking kidding me," he said, honing in on the guy who looked just like him, bright red eyes and all, only difference being pale skin, almost white hair, and no horns. The utterly traumatized look was what he thought really cinched it.

"What the absolute FUCK are you DOING here!?" Karkat shouted, looking close to a psychotic break. "WHAT!? WHY!? _HOW!?_ "

"They're the reinforcements," Rose—the HUMAN Rose—said, looking at her troll double with thinly-veiled interest and excitement. "This is what I Saw to begin with, and had Dave and Jade work out. Call it a cheat code in the game."

"Call it whatever the FUCK you want, it doesn't make this anymore awkward and unreal!" Karkat snapped, rubbing his temples.

"Guys, I think Lord English's initial shock is wearing off," Jade—HUMAN Jade—was saying. "Whatever cheat we're using, we've got to do it NOW."

Human John regained his senses first, flying up to his troll double, grinning. "Got a hammer?" he said, holding up Zillyhoo. Troll John blinked, then summoned up his Fluorite hammer.

"Mine's bigger," he said. Human John huffed.

"Mine's cooler."

"Hey, Assholes One and Two, compare dick sizes later!" Human Dave said, holding up his sword. "Troll Me, Troll Jade, gather up whatever God Tier senses you two have and help out! Vriska, do the Light thing with Troll Rose and Human Rose. Johns, stop comparing johns and do whatever you can to keep Skullfuck in one place with your windy shit!" He turned to the non-God Tiers.

"Terezi, got any ideas?"

"Aim for the balls!"

"Bitchin'. Someone wake the assclown up, I'm not letting him sleep this shit out!" He turned to his troll double. "You waiting for an invitation?"

Troll Dave scowled, grabbing his own sword. "Kinda get why Gamzee doesn't like you," he said, flying over—and getting used to the fact that he was kind of FLYING. "What are we doing?"

"Same shit we did to our friends," Human Dave replied. "Doing some time-space shenanigan bullshit to send him out of our universe. Hopefully he dies en route, but luck isn't my Aspect, and neither is Hope."

"…What?"

"Nevermind. Just…you SHOULD be able to FEEL what you need to do. You're a Knight of Time, like me. Just do what I do, with EVERYTHING you've got!"

Troll Dave sighed, nodding. "Right." He stared at Lord English. "Karkat's description REALLY doesn't do that fucker justice."

"Wouldn't think so," Human Dave said. "Let's do this."

Troll Jade could sense the exhaustion coming from her human counterpart. "…Do you think we'll be able to do what they think we can do?" she said, looking concerned. "…I'm not even entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing!"

Human Jade took a deep breath before straightening, steely conviction in her eyes. "We HAVE to," she said. "We're capable of this, and this universe NEEDS to be rid of him." She held out her hand to her troll double, smiling. "Two Witches are better than one."

"…I guess that's true," Troll Jade said, taking the human's hand, suddenly getting a clear view of what she was able to do. "…Definitely true."

Vriska kept close to both Roses. "How much luck do you need, because I pretty much spent what we had on cutting the fucker's hand off," she said.

Human Rose flexed her hands. "As much as you can," she said. "Even with another Light player here, it's all down to our Aspect to make this work, just like last time."

Troll Rose glanced between Lord English and the still-open hole in space. "It'll lead to our universe," she said. "Normally, that would seem completely unfair…"

"…but you just KNOW it's the most fortuitous path," Human Rose finished, nodding. "It's what our position tells us…the most fortuitous path to take. But luck is nothing without perspiration to back it up."

Troll Rose glanced over at her John and the human one, who were zooming and flashing around, trying to see who could get a hit in without being swatted. "…What about dumb luck?"

"No Aspect like that, I'm afraid."

Aspect for it or no, dumb luck seemed to be playing on Troll John's strengths perfectly, having gotten the hang of free-flying, dodging, in-flight hammer-swinging, and even becoming straight air and zapping here and there like a teleporting blue gnat.

"THIS IS BETTER THAN MY PROPULSION BOOTS!" he laughed, dodging out of the way of English's hand, swinging his hammer and managing to break off a clawtip. Human John snorted, flying up higher.

"Lots more you can do than fly," he said, displacing his hammer and waving his hands, a gust of wind appearing. "Help me out with this!"

Troll John dove up after him to join him up in the air, getting a feel of the currents Human John was creating, waving his hands and contributing, the gusting getting stronger, feeling a surge of…well, BREATH inside of him, like one, long, first-ever, life-giving breath that only grew in intensity as he and his human counterpart managed for form a cylinder of air around English.

"Yes, it's working!" Vriska said, grinning. "Get ready, Roses, we've got this—"

She was cut off by the sound of a galaxy-shaking roar, Lord English lurching up and grabbing Troll John out of the air with his remaining hand. The cylinder of air broke as Human John darted down to help, only to be swatted down with English's forearm and pinned down by his foot.

"FUCK!" both Daves swore together, rushing in to help their respective bros. Lord English snarled, opening his jaws and firing a beam of energy at them, and they were saved last moment by Troll Jade instinctively displacing them away and over to her and Human Jade. Human Dave jumped up, jerking in Troll Jade's hold.

"LET ME GO!" he shouted. "JOHN!"

Troll John tried to get out of English's grip, but finding even attempting to turn into wind wasn't working. He yelped in pain when the grip tightened.

" _ **I WILL ENJOY WRENCHING THE BREATH FROM YOUR BODY,"**_ English hissed, tightening his grip while simultaneously grinding his foot down to the Human John under it, simultaneous gasps of pain coming from both of them. _**"AND WHEN I AM FINISHED, I WILL TEAR YOU TO PIECES AND DEVOUR WHAT IS LEFT—"**_

He was interrupted by a loud, shrill roar from above, looking up in time to get a large sickle right to the eye, courtesy of an enraged Karkat.

"THAT'S MY KISMESIS YOU'RE FUCKING WITH!" Karkat snarled, twisting the sickle hard, launching off of English's skull and slamming it into the wrist of the hand that was clenched around Troll John. English's grip loosened enough for Troll John to slip out of, and he dropped to the ground, gasping for air.

English shrieked in rage, swinging his arm hard. Karkat dug the sickle in deeper, holding on tightly until there was an upswing, wrenching the sickle out and using the motion of the upswing to jump up and slash at English's face. English went in for another swing, only to stumble back when Kanaya raced up and cut through his tendon with her broadsword.

"KARKAT, YOU IDIOT!" she shouted, wishing she had her chainsaw as she pulled Human John out from under English's foot. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

Karkat dropped down, ignoring Kanaya as he hurried over to Troll John. "Wake the fuck up!" he cried, shaking his shoulder hard. "Don't go passing out on everyone you goddamn wiggler!"

Troll John sat up, rubbing his chest. "Don't count on it," he retorted. "Hurry up and get out of here, me and him got this." He nodded to Human John, who was assuring Kanaya that he was fine. He suddenly threw out his hands, blasting Karkat and Kanaya back with a gust of air as English released another energy blast down at them.

"…Lord English should've seen that coming," Human Jade said, frowning. "He's the Lord of Time, he ALWAYS sees…"

"It's because of our Troll counterparts," Human Rose said, looking over at Troll Rose. "They're an unknown variable, from another time, and another space. It's ruining his omnipotence." She smirked. "Cheat Code, remember?"

"Rose, I'd kiss you if it wouldn't put me in therapy for a year," Human Dave said. He raised his voice. "HURRY THE FUCK UP, DICK ONE AND DICK TWO! BACK TO BATTLE STATIONS!"

Both Johns were already back up in the air, reforming out the wall of air.

"Try to be the wind BEFORE he can touch you!" Human John called over to Troll John, who nodded and forced out stronger gusts, making it as thick as he could, indeed becoming untouchable as English reached for him again, reappearing in another spot as Human John did the same.

The cylinder became tighter and more compact, the open top slowly narrowing as it closed.

"Get ready," Human Rose said, her aura already glowing brighter. "Jades! Daves! Get to the hole! Try to move it to him!"

Both sets of Jade and Dave nodded and went to the hole in the air, the Jades 'holding' the sides and the Daves kept it from collapsing, the flickering of the edges of the hole letting everyone know just how strenuous it was literally moving a tear in time and space from one place to another.

Both Roses moved into position on the other side of English, preparing to launch him through, pausing when they saw the edges of the wind wall flexing and expanding.

"Shit—if you're gonna do it, you gotta do it now!" Vriska shouted.

"Not with them in the way!" Troll Rose replied. "We've got one shot at this, and I don't want to have to take anyone with him!"

"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!" Vriska hollered over to the Johns. "IT'S GO TIME!"

"We CANT—not YET!" Human John shouted, mostly to himself and his Troll counterpart. "If we stop now, he'll break through!" He struggled to keep up the wind flow, but exhaustion was setting in again, and he knew the other John wouldn't be able to keep it up himself.

Troll John could see the human's fatigue from where he was levitating, swearing under his breath as he forced out a stronger gust, feeling an uncomfortable tugging in his gut. He wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer himself.

"…We have no choice," Human Rose said, her eyes glowing gold. "We have to do it now, or never!"

Troll Rose clenched her jaw, but knew that it was the right path. It WAS literally now, or never. She raised her hands, her own eyes glowing.

Human John struggled to maintain consciousness as he tried to close the gap in the air wall, his eyes widening when he saw English stare right up at him, then lurch upward, head-first, and jaws wide open and glowing with a blast ready to go.

Three things happened simultaneously.

The Roses launched themselves at the wall of air.

Troll John dove out of the way last-minute.

And Gamzee came out of nowhere with his Warhammer of Zillyhoo, and bashed English right back into the air wall while kicking Human John out of the line of attack.

The blast of light hit the wall of air with enough force to launch it right through the hole in time-space, the wind dispersing and leaving Lord English to scream in rage as he vanished into the blackness of the hole.

And then there was silence.


	31. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

The Daves and Jades dropped their holds on the hole and collapsed, the hole shrinking down to the size of a small doorway. Human John groaned, curled up on himself, reeling from exhaustion and the possible internal damage of having been violently kicked. Troll John sat up, looking around.

"…Is everyone…alright?" he asked tentatively.

Human Rose fell to her knees, panting hard. "…if…I don't keel over from exhaustion, I may be," she replied. "God, I could use a drink…"

"You and me both," Troll Rose said, flopping back. "Easily, worst day ever. Bar none." She took a breather before sitting up and trudging over to the Daves and Jades.

Troll Dave was lying on his back, staring off at nothing, looking like he was wondering if any of this was even REAL. Human Dave just looked like he wanted to curl up and sleep forever, but was trying to make sure Human Jade was alright.

"I'm just really tired, Dave," Human Jade was saying, keeping her eyes closed. "…I just…really need a nap…"

"If you die, I swear I'll kill you," Human Dave said, his poker face ruined by his tear-filled eyes. "I fucking mean it, Harley." She just let out a soft snort and let out a sigh.

"You need a nap too…"

Terezi slid down the side of the cliff she was situated on, meeting up with Kanaya and Karkat, who hurried in and convened with the rest of the group. Karkat sort of looked torn between which Dave he wanted to hug first, and instead rubbed his arms, looking around.

"…So that's it," he said. "Please say that's it."

"That's it," Human John said, letting out a soft chuckle only to curl up tighter from the pain. "Shit…Gamzee didn't need to kick me that hard…"

Karkat frowned, looking around again. "…Where IS Gamzee?" he said. Terezi scoffed softly.

"…Told him he was being stupid," she said. "Still, he was able to knock English down and get John out of the way—"

Karkat paled. "…Y…you don't mean he got knocked in with Lord English, do you!?" he stammered, then grabbed her shoulders, shaking her hard, red tears welling up. "WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM, TEREZI!? WHY!?"

"What's got Karkat's panties in a twist THIS time?"

Everyone turned around to see Vriska walking back over to everyone, looking like she had taken a blow to the head, but most importantly, she was half-dragging Gamzee alongside her. She grunted, shifting his weight away from her God Tier wings. "Shit, Makara, what the hell has Rose been feeding you?" She set him down before flopping to the ground too, dispelling her God Tier so she could flop back.

"…I was going to say, I didn't stop him because he'd be making sure Lord English stayed where he was, and he'd be saving John, and Vriska was going to save him," Terezi said, a slight hint of teasing to her voice.

"Just awesome," Human Dave groaned from his place on the ground. "Chucklefuck dooms the day, and saves it within the same hour. New record, assclown."

"…hate you…so much…" Gamzee mumbled, looking close to pitching forward onto the ground.

"Kinky. But not in front of everyone else, please, for the sake of the virgins."

Troll Dave let out a lout snort, covering his face with his arm, tears of mental exhaustion and mirth dampening his sleeve. "…oh my various gods, you two just need to fuck already!" he laughed, knowing without looking that Gamzee's face was dark purple and Human Dave was staring, unable to form a decent-enough comeback.

"…So, is no one else going to mention that there are trolls that look just like us here?" Human John finally said.

"Ugh, THANK you, I was hoping someone would address that elephant in the room," Human Dave groaned, rubbing his face. "I mean, not that I'm complaining much, I've got the biggest horns an' all…"

Kanaya let out a heavy sigh, plopping down next to Human Rose. "…It's a very LONG story," she said. "Not one I think we can cover entirely before that hole closes."

"She's right," Troll Rose said, hugging her knees. "We've got maybe a half-hour before it closes on its own. I wouldn't want to risk it."

Karkat swallowed hard, shoving his hands into his pockets and stalking off to sit by himself next to a big rock. Human Dave looked after him, frowning. "…what's wrong with him?" he asked. Both Troll John and Troll Dave's faces blushed their respective colors.

"Oh, cool, I'm even a Blue-blood in troll world?" Human John said, poking Troll John's cheek. "I'm starting to see a pattern here with me and blue." He paused, glancing between Troll John and Karkat. "…Um…this just got awkward, didn't it?"

"More than you think," Troll John replied, rubbing his face.

Terezi sighed, pulling Human John away. "I'll tell you all about it later," she said. "But right now, EVERYONE needs to say their goodbyes, admire their other-species selves, have cross-dimensional makeouts, whatever. I'm personally a fan of the latter."

Troll Rose stood up, walking over to Gamzee and knelt down in front of him, lifting his head. "Hey," she said softly, smiling. "You've done so well with your mind neutrality. And I think you've atoned plenty for your past mistakes." She rummaged around in her pocket, taking out a large bottle of the pills, handing it to him. "As just-in-cases, until you no longer need them. I know you can do it."

Gamzee sniffled, then hugged her tightly. "…Thanks for not givin' up on me," he murmured, tearing up. "I'll…I wont be motherfuckin' crazy again…I promise…"

"I know," Troll Rose said, smiling. "Just keep being kind, and you wont be alone anymore." She kissed his head, heading over to the hole, passing by her human counterpart. "…You're a lucky girl. Hope you know that." She smiled, walking on to wait by the black hole.

"I always wondered what I'd look like as a troll," Human John said, grinning at his troll double. "Just another thing I can scratch off my bucket list."

Troll John turned dark blue. "Your WHAT? That's….is that even a THING?" Human John just laughed, scratching his head.

"Oh, right…terminology. I meant to say, you look awesome and I'm glad I got to see the me if I were you." Troll John just nodded.

"Makes sense." He gave Human John a shrewd look. "…You know, I cant see WHY Karkat would hate you. Even for a total bucket pervert, you're really nice."

Human John blushed a little. "…I guess I just annoy him," he replied, shrugging, chewing his lip. "…and…maybe I like riling him up. He's funny."

"…not…the word I would use. But alright." Troll John turned serious, reaching out and holding his human double's shoulder. "…annoy him for me. Just…annoy the absolute SHIT out of him. Make him scream and rant the way I cant."

Human John looked oddly serious. "Prankster's honor, I will," he said. "Until he says that black square is open for me again." Troll John's face went blue again.

"…that's the general idea."

Troll Jade smiled, watching the two Johns converse. "I can only imagine what they're so serious about," she said. Human Jade's dog ear twitched as she giggled.

"My John is making a Prankster's vow to annoy Karkat as much as he possibly can," she replied, noticing the blush come over her troll double's face. "…What?" Troll Jade leaned in and whispered something quietly, making Human Jade turn bright red. "…Oh. OH." She stared. "…OUTSIDE, though? Never pegged either of them to be exhibitionists."

Troll Jade shrugged, smiling. "You do crazy things when you're in hate," she replied, hovering in place for a moment before touching down on the ground again. "…you've got a pretty great group of friends, you know that, right?"

Human Jade nodded, smiling. "The best," she said. "Looks like you've got a great brood of your own. Troll Jade sighed wistfully.

"The best."

The two Daves sort of stood awkwardly by each other for a good while before Troll Rose started signaling it was time to go. Troll Dave shoved his hands in his pockets, turning as though to go to his Rose, then paused and turned to Human Dave. "Hey," he said, jerking his thumb in Karkat's direction. "…Do you mind if I…say goodbye?"

Human Dave glanced between Karkat and Troll Dave for a moment before nodding. "Sure man," he said. "Go on ahead."

Troll Dave gave him a nod before walking over to Karkat, who tensed up and looked petulantly defensive. "…Finally getting out of our hair at last?" Karkat said, not making eye contact. "I'm sure you cant wait to—"

He was cut off when Troll Dave grabbed his shoulders and kissed him hard.

Everyone was too shocked to pay attention to the squee Troll Jade let out, and she was fine with that.

Troll Dave let go of Karkat's shoulders to instead cup the smaller troll's face, a soft purring resonating from his chest, where his heart Quadrant was coming from. He leaned back after a moment, looking Karkat in the eye. "…Not PALE for you, Karkat," he said, smiling softly before hugging Karkat tightly. "…you're so pitiable. More than I'm surprised anyone can bear. You've got plenty to pity here, and even plenty to hate. You're one lucky troll, man."

He kissed Karkat's head before letting go, heading over to Human Dave and looking him in the eye. "Take. The hint." Without waiting for a response, he walked over to his friends and sighed. "…ready when you are."

Humans Dave and Jade stood by the black hole as the troll counterparts gave one last wave and well-wishing before walking through, as indicated before, not looking back.

There was a heavy silence after the black hole vanished, and nobody really knew what to do for a good many minutes.

Dave finally broke the stillness by walking over to Karkat, whose pained yet dazed expression quickly turned to panic. "D…Dave, I…" Karkat stammered, taking a step back. "…I didn't…I just…I couldn't help it—"

"Shut up."

Karkat flinched when Dave spoke, ducking his head. "…I'm….I'm sorry…"

Dave reached out and grabbed Karkat's head. "...I pity you so fucking hard." He then pulled him in and kissing him hard. Karkat yelped and flailed for a moment before registering what was happening, and then he couldn't stop his arms from flinging around Dave tight enough for it to be impossible to pry them apart.

John groaned, flopping back on the ground. "FINALLY!" he shouted, laughing hysterically. "You owe me a viewing of Con-Air, Jade!"

Terezi snickered. "I can hear them making out all the way from over here!" she said, contemplating tossing a rock over to ruin the moment, but figured she'd give them the first moment and vow to ruin all the others. She turned to Vriska, nudging her. "Hey," she said, glancing over in Gamzee's direction. "…you saved his life."

Vriska grunted, shrugging. "Yeah, so what," she muttered, as though daring Terezi to accuse her of a Pale gesture—or WORSE.

"…So nothing," Terezi said. "You saved his life. It was a good thing to do. Actions speak louder than words, and with a stunt like that, you'll never have to say 'sorry' to him."

"Swear to the Horrorterrors, Terezi, if you think I feel anything for him—"

"Nah." Terezi smiled, reclining back. "He's already got his future Quadrants all thought out. Sorry, Vriska, but you're not in any of 'em."

"…What, is he too GOOD for me now?! Of all the—"

"KARKAT! DAVE! KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON!" Kanaya shouted. "I AM NOT ABOVE DOING THIS ALL OVER AGAIN!"

"…Doing what?" John asked.

Terezi and Vriska looked at each other before falling down laughing too hard to breathe.

Oh, the stories they had to tell.

* * *

 ** _It's just about over now! Just an epilogue to go._**


	32. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The reward for it all truly seemed worth it, in the end.

Everyone who won, and everyone who died before, were reunited on an enormous planet in the center of their new universe, impossibly big and divided into twenty separate sectors, one for each player to call their own.

It still took a long time for them to travel the planet to find the sectors that belonged to the respective player, but it gave everyone plenty of time to talk things out, offer apologies and forgiveness, and for new friendships and relationships to forge. By the time all of the sectors had been found and domains established, hardly anyone felt the need to keep to their own anymore.

No sector was closed off by anyone. Everyone was welcome to explore and enjoy the terrain, be it Eridan's expansive oceans filled with lusii-like creatures that swam about, never to fear being killed, Jake's beautiful jungles with emerald-green foliage—which he gladly shared with his fellow adventurer and now-moirail Aradia, or the breathtaking mountain ranges that were housed in John's domain.

For peace and quiet, they would probably visit Dave's sector, a breezy, lightly wooded area made especially for his desire for silence, fresh air, and his new hobby of bird keeping.

To break the monotony, they might go island-hopping in Vriska's sector, though they would have to go armed. Vriska never did like to make it easy to find the treasures hidden around and about, after all.

For civilized get-togethers, they would visit Rose or Kanaya—sometimes at the same time, as their sectors were right next to each other—in a terrain of moors and caverns, giving off a somewhat creepy, yet very calming air.

If they were ever in the need for a bit of weirdness, they'd stop by Gamzee's sector, one long shoreline that bordered Eridan's oceans that held a seemingly-endless carnival. He could normally be found tending to a large tribe of seagoats, his enthusiasm for the creatures only being rivaled by Equius's long, endless fields full of hoofbeasts, both organic and mechanical.

Whatever the tastes, there was something for everyone, both vacation spots, and relationships.

Karkat hardly stayed in his own sector—no matter how romantically cliché it was, being lakeside in an enormous, beautiful valley bathed in eternal dawn light—and instead stayed with Dave, despite all his complaints about 'the demon featherbeasts'. Dave said they could travel between their sectors on-and-off, but Karkat had none of it. He knew his matesprit loved those featherfiends too much to leave them for long periods of time.

He'd never tell Dave that he secretly liked it when the stupid 'ravens' would preen at his hair. He'd take that secret to his eternal grave.

Besides, Dave's huge, rafter-filled cabin in the woods was cozy, and did that boy ever know how to make the best coffee in the world.

That was where Karkat was now. Sipping coffee and staring out the window as a light rain pattered against the window, thinking about how this was right out of the cheesiest, most cliché Red romcom he had in his collection.

He glanced over at the wall across from him, seeing Dave's sword above the fireplace, thinking about how Dave never touched it, or any other sword, since they came here.

He thought about telling Dave everything about his time on Otherus, his emotional turmoil, the agony of falling for someone that WASN'T his Dave. He recalled Dave kissing him and telling him he wouldn't have wanted Karkat to suffer like that, and that he would've been HONORED that Karkat found a troll with such glorious horns to fall for him.

Oh, how he recalled the laughter that dissolved into pitiful sobbing, that further dissolved into the most intimate moment of his life, full of kissing, tender touching, and holding, practically hearing shitty love songs sung by Troll Mandy Moore in the background the whole time.

If that hadn't completed his life enough, he found his now-vacant Pale Quadrant refilled by Gamzee. The caring, compassionate troll that showed back up those last few days on Otherus seemed here to stay, always coming by just to say hello, bring over some small token of Pale affection, and have some cuddle time while Dave was busy with his featherbeasts.

Karkat knew that this side of Gamzee was hard-won, and a continuous struggle to maintain. The times he visited Gamzee in his own domain, he would simply sit and observe Gamzee in a deep, intense meditation, practically feeling both a benevolent and malevolent entity in the room with them, with Gamzee always the neutral anchor in the middle. Never once did he see Gamzee falter or relapse, and he could only feel himself feel more and more pride for his moirail doing so well in this.

He supposed Gamzee filling up his own Quadrants had something to do with it. Gamzee finally outright expressed his desire for matespritship to Tavros, even doing the romcom thing and getting down on one knee to do it. Karkat didn't think he would ever see Gamzee so happy as when Tavros accepted.

Gamzee also found his kismesis, though THAT was quite a situation in and of itself. Even after Karkat explained everything to Dave and all but forbade his matesprit from disrespecting Gamzee's deities, the pitch spark between the two never really faded, and Karkat found himself in the highly-sordid and rarely heard-of Quadrant Three-Way; his matesprit and moirail were kismesises.

He honestly thought about writing a few novels about it.

About his OWN Caliginous Quadrant…that was a bit of a shithive doozy to really get into.

John seemed to be taking his promise to Otherus John to heart, baiting and pranking Karkat almost mercilessly, reveling in the long-winded rage rants that it seemed only HE could get out of the troll in his peaceful new world. He didn't seem to get WHY Otherus John had asked him to keep pestering Karkat, and it's not like Karkat was going to tell him.

After it being a somewhat secret-not-secret that was mostly hush-hush around John, Terezi finally broke the news about what transpired between Karkat and Otherus John. In excruciating detail.

Karkat never thought he'd have anymore decapitation fantasies, but he nearly took Terezi's head off when she told John that. Mostly out of his own embarrassment—and YES, the slight sting of reminder that his first REAL kismesissitude was no more—but also for the look of absolute HORROR that came over John's face.

In one of the first serious issues of this new world, Karkat thought whatever…'friendship?'…he had with John was going to be ruined. Instead, John was only expressing horror in the form of CONCERN as to whether or not it was that kismesissitude that gave Karkat all those scars on his body, and started fretting that if hurting Karkat was what it took for him to be a kismesis, that he was totally not ready for that.

John…that blessed idiot…

An awkward conversation later, mostly being totally un-Caliginous reassurances that no, John WASN'T expected to scar up the rest of Karkat's unmarred flesh, and NO, John WASN'T EXPECTED TO HAVE SEX WITH KARKAT, John finally stopped panicking, and Karkat thought that was what.

Less than five minutes later, John dropped a water balloon filled with soda on his head, and nope, Caliginous feelings came back.

It was complicated, but a compromise of sorts was made. He still refused to use John's term of 'Kismebro'…even if that WAS sort of what they were. A moirail you could hate. The worst part was, Karkat could totally feel it WORK.

Leave it to John to make up another Quadrant…

"You gonna come down out of space there?"

Karkat looked up when Dave walked over and sat next to him. He smiled, leaning against his matesprit with a content sight. "Nah, I like it up here just fine," he replied.

Dave curled his arm around Karkat, resting his chin on the troll's head. "…What were you thinking about?" he asked. Karkat gave him a weak shrug.

"Just us," he said. "Our friends…our lives here now."

"…Pretty heavy thinking." Dave rubbed Karkat's arm. "…Do you ever still think about that other universe?"

Karkat was past feeling ashamed about it by this point, and honestly said, "Sometimes. It was an interesting experience." He looked up, smiling softly. "But I wouldn't trade this for a million other universes. Not ever."

"You're such a romantic sap," Dave said, resting his forehead against Karkat's. "Never change."

"Deal." Karkat pulled Dave closer, kissing him softly.

* * *

 _ **An entire existence away…**_

Dave walked himself into Rose's hive, as always not bothering to knock. "Anyone home?" he called in.

"Need you really ask?" Rose said, coming around the corner. "I've already got some tea ready, would you like some?"

"Don't mind if I do." Dave followed her to the sitting room and plopped himself back in a chair, taking the tea offered with a thanks. "So, how are things?"

"Same as usual," Rose replied, sipping her own, looking oddly contemplative. Dave noticed.

"…The uppity shitheads still giving you grief?" he asked, referring to the Grimdark elders who called for Rose's resignation from the religion when her patron Calliope cut off their bond in order to contain the creature Caliborn from escaping to the other universe entirely.

Rose's lips pursed slightly. "Yes, but that's neither here nor there. I may no longer be a Grimdark with a patron, but it is still my path to practice." She paused. "…I was actually thinking of relocating to the East."

Dave lowered his cup, blinking. "…Wow," he said. "Pretty serious decision. Are you gonna?"

She sighed. "…I don't know," she replied. "It's a big step…and there's still you…and Jade and John…"

"Hey." Dave put his cup down, reaching over and squeezing her hand. "Distance means nothing. You'll still be my moirail, no matter if you're on the other side of the planet, or just down the street. As for Jade and John…" He sighed, giving her a smile. "We're not kids anymore, Rose. We're almost adults now…and you don't have to protect us all anymore. It's time for YOU to be happy now."

Rose squeezed his hand back, blinking back tears. It was true. John and Jade had a firm moiraillegience that never faded after their Alternian friends had left, but instead only grew stronger. In the sweeps that followed, Jade really came out of her shell and began making more friends, finding herself out to be a fantastic auspistice that turned out to be a career.

John still enjoyed traveling around the world and inventing new things, finally perfecting his propulsion boots after his taste of flight in that other universe was never quelled. In his travels, he managed to find another Indigo blood with a temperament much like his own who was also an inventor. The two crossed paths in the Western lands and hit it off.

Quite literally; John landing on and breaking one of his animatronics broke the ice into what became a fantastic kismesissitude. Dave tried to be supportive, but the guy kind of creeped him out, to be honest. The guy's matesprit was a pretty chill dude, though.

"…You're right," Rose said, drying her eyes. "And what about you, hm?" She gave him a saucy smile. "How are things going with your fellow social justice warrior?"

Dave himself had abandoned his shades and darker red clothing, wearing his candy-red mutated color with pride and becoming more involved in caste politics. His work caught the attention of, to his amazement, another mutant blood of his color from the Northern lands, and the two became almost inseparable and the perfect team of peaceful yet firm protests and public speeches.

"Long-winded, irritating, and insufferable," Dave replied with a grin. "Wouldn't expect anything less from a matesprit. But let's talk about YOU, and you moving to the East so you can shack up with your sweet honeybabe Porrim more easily."

"DAVE!" Rose's face went dark purple, rubbing her cheeks. "…Do you really think we'll work out?"

Dave knocked back the rest of his tea. "Rose, if you two have HALF as much passion as John does with Horuss, or even I do with Kankri, I know everything will be perfect."

 **THE END**


End file.
